Darkseid Cometh
by Chris St Thomas
Summary: Trust AU. CH 9 NEW! A huge bolt of lightning struck the face of the building, revealing a man in a red jacket with lightning bolt and tattered white cape. Seeing Kal and Chloe, the Captain of the Lightning asked, "Am I interrupting?" Pls R&R. Follows Redemption's Coda.
1. Premonitions and Preparations

Author's Note: - Things you may need to know if this is your first visit to the Trust AU. I've brought back some characters from the Smallville TV show and attempted to bridge the continuity of the first five years of Smallville, the two Richard Donner Superman movies and Superman Returns. I've also added in a composite Batman and reinterprted some other Justice League heroes. Chloe Sullivan-with the Amazons while Kal-El was gone to Krypton and back-gained Amazon powers.

Disclaimer: Harry Dresden appears without permission of Jim Butcher who nevertheless agrees not turn me into a salamander and since I'm not making any money, yet, Warner Bros., DC Comics, et. al. agree not to sue.

Prolog: Premonitions and Preparations

The Past. Apokolips.

On a distant, scorched, post industrial, post apocalyptic planet, The Mighty Darkseid, god-Emperor of Apokolips, stormed about his Throne Chamber. Boiling clouds of gray energy gathered from all parts of the immense room and swirled near the high, arched ceiling as well as along the floor. The clouds began to rotate slowly in opposite directions. Bolts of static electricity leaped from one to the other and back. The spinning clouds picked up speed and twin vortexes formed at the ceiling and the floor. Each vortex reached toward the center of the room. As the points of the vortexes approached within a meter of each other they held position and then moved away as though they were magnets of like charge. Soon the two vortexes spun about each other forming a third gigantic vortex sucking all of the cloud in together and in a huge burst of indigo lightening, the shape a man flashed over the throne.

Darkseid appeared.

Seated upon the Throne, his craggy gray skin looked like it had been chipped from the face of a granite cliff appeared all the more menacing in his dark purple and midnight blue uniform. Red light smouldered like coals in his eyes.

The old gods, the Archangels, the mages and the Amazons had banished him and his kind from the realm of Earth 10,000 years ago close to the dawn of human history, locking them beyond the Outer Gates. But over ten millennia his powers had grown again. His Empire of Darkness now spanned two star systems.

Soon he would wreak his revenge upon the realm of Earth and whatever pitiful defenders remained to it. The spread of mono-theism over the last 2,000 years had dethroned the old gods and apparently the Archangels weren't paying to much attention either. [If the serial killers and genocidal maniacs running rough-shod over the planet since their year 1937 were an indication of Divine inattention] The military forces of the freedom loving nations stood over-committed in their fight with religious extremists "in love with martyrdom." And Earth's self-appointed Supernatural Protectors, the White Council of Wizards, were taking heavy losses thanks to his agents' carefully engineered war with the Vampire Courts and the treachery of the Black Council. The time to launch his strike force grew short.

It was all unfolding as he had foreseen.

Great Darkseid rose and entered his command center. Desaad stood to attention, resplendent in his blood red robe with its gold trim. Desaad's command center crew looked somewhat less than resplendent in their own uniforms.

**::Report::**

Darkseid received the report from his Chief of Planning and Torture, Desaad. "Events proceed apace as you have foreseen, my Master. Even perhaps a bit ahead of schedule. The last flyby of Earth, nine months ago, confirmed that The Son of Krypton had abandoned Earth truly and for good. Sinestro's Fear Corps engages the minions of Your enemies, The Guardians. Your agents in Earth's Middle East and Indonesia report two successful field tests of Your short range verbally delivered solution to the Anti-life Equation."

Desaad neglected to mention that the current fly by showed new heroes: Neo and Trinity took Missions in cooperation with a group of heroes the earthlings called Super Friends. It wasn't Superman and his League. Great Darkseid wouldn't want to be troubled with it.

**::Excellent. With the Guardians' dogs thrown into chaos by the Fear Corps, we must swoop down upon the Earth and crush it and its pathetic Titans before their precious Superman can return and form his League. Quickly Desaad! Prepare my Armada! We shall leave at Dusk.::**

Forty thousand light years, was no small distance even a being who had gone toe to toe with an Archangel. Admittedly Darkseid and his kind had lost. But it had taken more than just one Archangel to defeat him. That was what this whole new project was about, settling the score. A travel time of many hours' ship time and a few days in the outside Universe was a small matter next to settling the score with earth.

Darkseid did not like to be indebted to anyone. However, he had to admit that if the someone in The Black Council on earth hadn't opened the Outer Gates, the ability to travel the 40,000 light years would have still left Earth inaccessible. Even a being as great and powerful as Mighty Darkseid was bound by the Natural and Supernatural Laws of the Cosmos.

_ Present. Earth. Metropolis. Kal-El._

Superman flew over Metropolis. Warm sun smiled down upon him and all was right with the world. He felt his crimson cape rustling in the wind. The cape flowed through the wind differently than the trench coat he'd used in the aftermath of the Bizarro Incidents. He could feel the difference without even listening for it or turning his head to look at it. He opened his eyes and saw the cerulean blue sleeves of his uniform. Looking down to scan the city below him, his peripheral vision caught the crimson and gold Kryptonian crest in the center of his chest.

The Man of Steel had enjoyed his brief stint as Neo. But back in his crimson cape and light blue suit, he felt like himself again. It felt...comfortable.

Clouds rolled in.

Winds howled.

The mid morning sun faded to a gloom like dusk. Kal-El continued to scan the city. His city.

Superman heard her scream before he saw the young woman falling. She had leaped from a building behind him. Knowing that he only had seconds before a heart attack would kill the falling girl, Kal-El reversed course and arc'd over the city at just under the speed of sound.

As he spotted his falling woman, he swooped down to a lower altitude and slowed to match velocities with her. Then he edged up next to her and caught her in his arms. "It's alright miss; I've got you now."

"NO! I don't want to live!" Dressed in tennis whites, she had clear skin and good teeth. But her eyes looked possessed by shear, pure terror. She convulsed her body and thrashed around, wresting herself from the Metropolis Marvel's grip. Tumbling again through the air, she righted herself. She brought her hands together in the center of her chest and put her legs together as well. The falling girl spread her arms wide palms facing out. As her chin reached for the ground, she arched her back. Keeping her arms straight, she slowly moved her palms through an arc to bring them together over head.

_Like an upside down swan dive, _thought Superman. _Her face looks so serene now_.

The Last Son of Krypton floated down next to the tennis lass and began to bring her into his arms again. Her face contorted into a snarl. Strands of her wavy hair twisted themselves together became greasy and began squirm around. All the blood drained from the girls face and her lips, nails and clothes turned black. All the way from her waist, she leaned back and then threw her whole torso forward smashing her forehead into Superman's in a massive head-but.

Clark woke from his dream with a start. As he took several deep breaths, he thought he could hear the girl whispering, "Something dark and awful is coming Kal-El. I can't bear to face it."

-x-x-

_The Present. Earth. Gotham. Batman._

In the Computer Room of the Cave, Batman played the video of the death scene forwards and backwards several times without sound. The scene in an open air market in Djacarta, Indonesia unfolded again and again. He watched at normal playback speed and in slow motion. He counted the time in tenths of a second from when the speaker finished mouthing his words and dropped dead himself to when the nearest shopper keeled over. The Dark Knight Detective deduced that they had fallen over as soon as their minds had processed the speaker's monolog. Apparently whatever words the speaker had called out had caused himself and everyone around him to drop dead. _Strike monologue, _Batman thought. _that was some kind of incantation._

_I'm going to need a consultant on this one. Not Zatanna either. She's good, but she hadn't faced down insidious, destructive Evil like this. I'm going to need a Knight of the Cross on this one, or...hmmm._

Batman put on his cape, cowl and gloves and reached for the phone. It was not red, nor was it kept under glass. It was an ordinary, state of the art, Cisco Systems VoIP video teleconferencing phone, if such a device could be called ordinary. The only thing extraordinary about the phone was the size of the buttons. They were four times normal size, to be easily pushed with the gloves and gauntlets. It wouldn't do for Batman to be seen on a video call with out his gloves on any more than it would for him to be seen without cape and cowl.

He dialed a number from memory. "James, it's me. No, I didn't realize it was dinner time." He looked over at the teak wood cart with the silver service on it as though seeing it for the first time. Alfred had naturally delivered his dinner on time. And Batman had naturally not noticed it until now. "Yes, it's important. What was the name of the guy you said Lieutenant Karrin Murphy used to call in on the freaky cases in Chicago, before you came back to Gotham. She's not a Lieutenant any more? What happened? Right. Later. Thanks." _Harry Dresden. That was his name, not Bern or Munich, but Dresden._ Batman reached up but the line was already dead. He removed the cape, cowl and gloves and ate Alfred's stir fry. Salmon with mushrooms and Chinese vegetables over wild rice. Delicious.

Then he picked up the phone and keyed for paging up in the Manor. "Alfred, let's fuel up the jet. I'm going to Chicago."

"Which one, Master Wayne, the Gulfstream or the really big one?"

"Neither. The Harrier."

"Very good, sir. Shall I summon Master Richard as well?"

Silence was Alfred's only reply. Batman still wasn't sure how he felt about sending Grayson away. The lad was the closest thing to family he had besides Alfred.

-x-x-x-

_The Present. Earth. Chicago. Dresden_

Two and a half hours later, halfway across the continent from Gotham, Wizard Harry Dresden surveyed his subbasement lab wearing his dark blue robe. It was cold down there. Winter had come early to Chicagoland and it was down right frigid in the underground lab. The robe kept him warm. It wasn't decorated with stars and he didn't wear one of those pointy overgrown dunce hats either. A black watch cap like soldiers or sailors wore kept his head warm.

Dresden only wore the Grey Cloak of his Office when on Official Business for the White Council of Wizards or when carrying out the duties of Commander of Wardens of the Council for North America. He fondly recalled his promotion from Regional Commander to Continental Commander. Even Warden Ramirez (his sometime rival and consistent supporter) and Elena, his estranged first love, had stood proudly at his side when he was promoted.

The concrete patch where he'd dug up Lasciel's coin to turn it over for destruction had nearly faded to the same color as the rest of the lab's floor. Or was it just that the whole floor was now covered with an even layer of obscuring dust. Little Chicago was crammed in next to his summoning circle. He'd filed his researches into a cure for Linda, his ex-girlfriend the reporter. The files and samples filled and entire cabinet. She was doing fine work with her new confederates to support the White Council in its decade long war with the Vampires and the Black Council.

He looked at his left hand and noted the scar tissue had completely regenerated. He had long since regained full muscle control and range of motion. His apprentice was nearly ready to take the Trials.

It was time to fashion a new Blasting Rod. He removed the wood from a pocket within his robe.

Bob the Skull clattered on his shelf. His eyes glowed. "Yo, Harry, d'you hear all that racket outside?"

"No. I was preparing to fashion a new Blasting Rod."

"Well, check it out man! It's disturbing my beauty rest."

Harry stepped over next to Little Chicago. He picked up the model of the tree outside his basement apartment. With the end of his Staff, Harry sketched a circle in the dust on the floor of his lab. He infused it with a drop of his own blood and closed it with his will, creating a protective barrier against external magic. His awareness shifted down into the model then projected outside to the tree.

Dresden heard the screaming whine of jet engines. It sounded like he was on the taxiway at Midway airport. Looking over at the boarding house under which lay his basement apartment, he confirmed that he was in his neighborhood. Harry looked up and saw a midnight black Harrier JumpJet hovering just above the treetops.

The jet began to settle down and toward Harry's basement apartment. The cockpit canopy slid back and a shadow within hurled three objects toward the wooden pole at the top of Harry's stair. Harry dropped his awareness back into the board and then back up into his body.

Harry climbed back up out of the lab and threw the skins and rugs back across the trap door. He walked two paces past his fireplace and his couch, chair and end table to his steel reinforced doors. Disarming his defensive wards, the wizard opened one door.

He walked up the stairs and found a bola wrapped around the pole with a Greyhound Bus Lines envelope underneath it. Piercing the center of the envelope was bat shaped ninja-style throwing star.

"Stars and stones!" _There is a Batman; always thought he was just an urban legend. Guess the Batarang is his calling card. _Dresden removed the surkien from the envelope and pulled it out from under the bola. He opened the envelope, _Ticket to Gotham. I'm not sure if this is a step up or down. _

_If he's asking for my help, it can't be a run of the mill supernatural threat. The Capes usually call in Zatanna. She's good, but limited. She doesn't have the experience in Combat Wizardry necessary to be even a Warden Recruit. Don't guess it matters. I'm the Wardens' U.S. Commander now. If it's a supernatural threat, I'll be knee deep in it sooner or later anyway. Better sooner..._

_On the other hand, I've only read conflicting reports on Batman: some, that he's a kind of vigilante; others, that he's some kind of blood drinking supernatural creature. I must go prepared._


	2. Conveniently Inconvenient

A/N: "Hello, yeah, it's been a while. Not much. How 'bout you?" Yeah, it's been a long time between entries. Been off saving the world, or at least making it safe for democracy.

Disclaimer: The plot is my own. Many characters and locations are owned by others who graciously allow folks like us to use them "fictitiously." Real locations and names are used fictitiously as well. I make no profit, yet. And they agree not to sue.

Conveniently Inconvenient

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Chloe.

While Clark Kent dreamt of falling girls in tennis whites in his own apartment, Chloe (Cassiopeia) Sullivan sat bolt upright in her bed across town in the Amazon Consulate. Deep shadows crowded her room and cold sweat dampened her forehead: _the Lasciel Coin!_ Could she have been so exhausted by a day that started with a pre-dawn raid in the manufacturing district, continued with emotionally wrenching and intellectually challenging conversations and ended with healing, so exhausted indeed, that she forgot to check on the coin?

_Yes._

Cassiopeia wrapped a sheet around herself and crossed the room to her closet. Opening the door, she looked at the top shelf. The small cedar chest with the sigils branded onto it its surface and ancient markings carved into it was missing. _Oh my stars. It's gone._ The blonde Amazon removed a robe from a hanger in the closet and slipped into it, throwing the sheet back over her bed. She rifled through her jewelry box, her drawers and knelt to look under the bed, but she knew she wouldn't find it anywhere.

She crossed the room to circular mirror mounted at face height on the wall next to her night stand. Depending on where she stood next to look into it, Chloe could see the doors to both her room and her closet in the reflection's background. She had to find out who had taken the coin.

The Consulate had no security cameras. Such technological devices were as easily fooled by skilled disguise artists as they were by creatures of myth. Instead of cameras linked to discs or tapes, that could be hacked or misplaced, the Amazons employed a system of unobtrusive circular mirrors whose interlocking reflections covered all the spaces in their buildings. With a modest Working a practitioner could dial back the hours of reflection and See what had taken place within the mirror's field of view.

Cassiopeia took a moment to center herself and focus her thoughts and her will on the task at hand. For magic to work, the mage must believe both that what she's about to attempt can be done and that it should be done. To determine what had become of the Lasciel coin, she would have to see who had come and gone from her room while she had been at work and traveling to Kansas.

With a clear and certain mind, Chloe spoke the activating Words that would trace the reflection backward in intervals of an hour at a time. There were several sets of activating Words for the reflection spell: for minutes, days, months, years, decades, etc. With her right hand she traced a counter clock wise circle just above the mirror, dialing back the hours of reflection, almost like watching a security video on rewind. While the reflection still showed darkness outside she watched herself get up from the bed, change out of her night gown and into her street clothes, grab her back pack and stride backwards out of the room. Looking back through the night she observed the shadows move back and for the across the room as the ambient light from the window changed according the motion of the moon and the clouds in the sky.

As the Amazon continued to dial back the hours, the illumination from the window brighten from indigo, to violet, to gold and red and day light. Soon she Saw the door open and someone about her height, also blonde but with a diagonal haircut that looked very dramatic walk backwards into the room.

At this point Cassiopeia stopped her hand and said the Words to change the reflection's playback interval to seconds. The interloper wore a beige trench coat with dark boots and carried a satchel. She backed up to the closet door, opened it and stepped inside. Chloe's mirror didn't show what happened inside the closet, because that was out of the mirror's view, but she felt sure this was the person who had taken the coin. The blonde with the jagged haircut backed out of the closet, closed it walked backwards to the room door.

Chloe felt certain that she was about to see the other woman's face as she glanced around the room upon entering. She was not disappointed, but instead shocked. Double shocked, in fact. As the trench-coat clad figure backed out the door she looked around the room and the first thing that struck Cassiopeia was the lines of bitterness and anger etched into the face of the woman trespassing in her room. The second detail that struck Chloe and left her breathless was features that held the bitterness: They were hers! At the same time that she and Clark had been in Kansas visiting his father's grave and fixing his mother's window, a person wearing her face had entered her room and taken Lasicel's coin. How could this be?

A sense of foreboding overtook her and she wondered what forces might be unleashed into the world of men and women... There was nothing for it now, but to finish her night's rest and attack the problem with renewed vigor when the sun rose.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Kal-El.

Long before the predawn grays of midwinter began to lighten the skies of Metropolis, Clark Kent rose for his morning meditations and his first patrol of the day. He couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding the dream of the tennis lass had left in his soul. Nor could he part with the certainty that whatever was coming had to do with those strange telescope photos Mr. White had shown him and Chloe. Though why some strange photos of constellations on the far side of the sky should mean trouble for Earth, still eluded his mental grasp. For that matter, he couldn't quite recall learning about tachyon field distortions either.

Clark's memory had always been eidetic. _ At least since Mom and Dad found me in Schuster's Field after that first meteor shower. _Perhaps the hibernation fugue during his recent voyage to Krypton and back had left some of my memories mis-sorted...

_Still, I have to figure out what those strange constellation photos and radio telescope data signify for Earth. I'll have to carve out some time later today to visit the Fortress and consult my father's Hologram... maybe have Green Lantern meet me there. Accessing Jor-El's amassed knowledge, we could cross reference with the backup copy of the Book of Oa that I let GL store in the Fortress. That cross-referencing may give me the clues I'll need to figure out what it means and whether it's a threat._

As he flew over Metropolis, Superman glanced down one of the large clocks in Planet Square, and realized it was still the middle of the night on the West Coast in California. He could afford to wait until a civilized hour to contact Green Lantern in Los Angeles: Since the data came from Tachyon field distortions in deep space, chances were the threat was still days away or longer crossing vast oceans of space.

Completing his sunrise circuit of Metropolis, Superman found the city relatively quite. Across the city he saw the armored hero Steel flying on patrol as well. Steel wore grey armored commando suit from head to toe, a dark blue scalloped cape (reminiscent of Batman's cape) and carried a rather large hammer. As they passed each other, Steel brought his hammer to present arms as though it were a saber and Superman returned a three fingered boy-scout salute.

Construction crews repairing damage the city suffered from Luthor's earthquake began to assemble at their jobsites. The morning traffic had about the average number wrecks, and x-ray vision showed only one life threatening injury. Kal considered the situation for a moment: super-hearing confirmed that passersby had phoned 9-1-1, he heard Metropolis Police Dispatch sending units to stop traffic and presently heard the rotors of a life-flight helicopter warming up. I_f I try to swoop in and fly the vehicle to a hospital, I'll just cause more problems with traffic doing it at normal speed...super-speed could hurt the injured. The Police and the Fire-Rescue Service have this one covered. Besides, it's about time for me to wake Jason up since I have to get him to school early and make the press conference in my red and blue uniform._

Later, Clark Kent joined a stream of commuters climbing the stairs from the subway's C- and F-trains to entrance nearest the Daily Planet Building's main lobby. Clumsily, he struggled with the knot on his tie while attempting to hold his briefcase under an arm. He wished he had grabbed his satchel this morning instead of the brief case, that way he'd have both hands free and this would be no problem...Kent excused himself past some commuters and made his way to the side of the stairs and stood next to the wall, placing his briefcase between his knees. As he continued to fiddle with his tie, he heard the footsteps and breathing of one of his fellow Planet reporters, Steve Lombard from the Sports desk– who fancied himself a ladies man and a bit of an office prankster – approaching from the C-train platform below. Anticipating that Lombard would attempt a prank involving his brief case, Kent reached down and moved it around between his back and the wall.

With a disappointed look, Lombard -who had indeed been savoring an opportunity to prank Kent with his briefcase- called a greeting to Kent. "Didn't see you on the C-line this morning."

"Oh, yeah, I came in on an earlier train and had to change my shirt. I spilled breakfast on it. I should just wear plaid shirts instead of white ones." Kent replied.

Lombard's eyes narrowed. That remark about plaid was a quip he would have used against Kent. The up side of the stairwell had effectively narrowed to a single file as the beefy Lombard stared Kent down."I just came from the men's myself." Lombard continued to stare.

_Oh crap. He's going to notice the top of my Superman uniform under my dress shirt. _Kent took a deep breath and willed himself to calm as he finished his tie. _I've faced down General Zod and changed the course of mighty rivers, even turned back the hands of time to save Lois in an earthquake once, and this barking donkey Lombard makes me nervous?! _From where they stood on the stairs, the back of the coffee vendor's cart at the subway station's entrance was visible and Kent devoutly wished he were up there with Chloe now.

Lombard's eyes narrowed. "I'm on to you, Kent. You're a cross-dresser, aren't you."

Commuters started to laugh at Clark's expense, until Polly an awkward intern at the sports desk and the only woman at the _Planet_ who actually liked Lombard, came up to show them something on her phone. She had a News 9 video of Superman at the District Attorney's press-conference cued up. Lombard pulled out his own phone to one-up her...Clark ducked away and climbed the last few stairs to meet Chloe in the coffee line. Lombard showed Polly a video of Superman and the Amazon called Trinity watching a sunset at the top of the Empire State Building from the U-Tube "Super Friends channel".

At the coffee stand, Chloe held up her iPhone to show Clark an amateur video taken by a sherpa at the base of the mountain K2 in New Zealand minutes earlier. "Nice one using oxygen bottles to save climbers from asphyxiating on K2. How did you manage that, with the press conference and getting Jason to school?"

"Oh, you know, faster than a speeding bullet. Things were quite in Metropolis and the rest of the US, and I had a feeling about the South Pacific." Clark muttered around a sip of coffee.

"Well, they may not be this quite for long." Chloe stepped away from the coffee vendor and shivered a bit in her coat. "Someone stole a artifact that's cursed last night. I had it secured in my quarters at the Amazon Consulate, one of the best guarded places in Metropolis. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Go on." Clark moved his glasses to peer over them in Chloe's direction and take the chill off her with heat vision.

"Mmmm. Thank you." The Amazon felt a bit warmer. "Someone or something wearing my face walked out with it while you and I were in Smallville."

"Clayface? J'edd J'orkzz the white Martian?" They took one of the tables that was mid-rif high for Chloe. Leaning closer, they spoke in hushed tones.

"No, Consulate Security confirmed that Clayface is in confinement at Bel Rev and I called J'onn J'onzz. J'onn says that the only Martian mind on the Eastern Seaboard while we were in Smallville was his niece M'gann M'orzz."

"Well, if Consular Security is on it, then it's out of our hands."

"Yeah, it concerns me that someone's out there with my face...and I'm worried about what that cursed coin may unleash into the world."

A few minutes later at Perry White's morning assignment huddle up stairs in the main conference room, the chief barked at the Metro Desk editor, "What are Kent and Sullivan doing here? I put them on the Mount Strolomo Observatory story."

The Metro Editor posed the same questions as Kent and Sullivan had the other day, "Don't we have a NASA guy at the Southern Desk in Atlanta?"

The Chief's glare took in the Editor as well as Kent and Sullivan, "Get out of here you two, bring me a story! And you, maybe I should give Lane a shot at running the Metro Desk..." Everyone chuckled at the Chief's joke about Lane running the Metro Desk. No one questioned their assignments more than she did, especially since Superman's return. When they turned to look following a gust of wind, Kent and Sullivan were gone.

Present. Earth. Santa Monica. Kyle Rayner.

During the lull, between the breakfast rush and the midmorning break rush, Kyle Rayner held a paint brush at one of the large plate glass windows in Radu's Coffeehouse on the first floor of his building. Radu Petrovitch was the proprietor of the Coffeehouse and leased out apartments on the upper floors. Kyle sometimes traded artist services in exchange for rent. This morning he would paint the new logo he'd designed for Radu on the windows, a few months ago he'd painted the logo on the walls. He still owed Radu a revised menu design, but including this morning's work, he was up on his rent. Radu didn't mind that the menu design hadn't come in yet and only Kyle's professional pride was hurt.

Rayner's agent had found him some commercial design work for the new Police Headquarters downtown and he still took photos for the Daily Planet's Los Angeles bureau. He was also a fighter pilot in the Air Force Reserve, so he was fully employed, and then some. Sometimes. Other times, his reserve pay kept the lights on and the fridge full and all he had for rent was bartering.

The bell on the front door rang. A lithe young woman, built like a ballet dancer entered the shop and walked behind the counter, Rayner recognized her immediately as Rachel Roth. Rachel had pale skin and rather dark purple hair but otherwise she seemed quite composed in a long, sleek, black skirt. Other than the hair, only her raspy voice might seem out of place. She was into meditation and martial arts. But this was LA. She fit right in.

Radu came out from the stock room wiping his hands on a towel, "Welcome to my coffeehouse, Miss Roth. Always, I like to start new employees during morning lull. Gives a chance to learn oddities and uniquenesses of imported old world coffee brewing equipments."

"Thank you Mr. Petrovitch." the pale skinned girl spoke with a unsettlingly pleasant rolling rasp.

"You have place to live?" Radu tucked his hand towel into a pocket on his smock. "Mrs. Petrovitch has cousin, just south of here in Venice, who runs rooming house."

_Wally and Artemis are renting her a room near UC Santa Monica campus._

"Yes, sir, I do; with some of my friends at university."

"Very good. A student." Radu clapped the girl on her shoulder and looked over toward Rayner, "Did you hear that, Kyle, she is student."

_Yes. _I nodded in their direction. _ She studies literature and poetry and hopes to teach gifted students like herself one day. Wait. She doesn't live in this building. It's her first day at work here. Why do I feel like I know her? How do I know all this stuff?_

"Mr. Rayner? I admire your work, especially your celestial collection, displayed at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia, Kennedy Space Center and at the Air & Space Museum, in DC, right?"

_I'm painting the celestial collection right now. It's never been shown anywhere. I'd love for it be at Kennedy or the Air & Space Museum. Mount Stromlo, Australia...That's where the ...visual distortions showed up...what? Why do I suddenly have a headache?_

Rayner's ring glowed and then his phone rang in his pocket. He made a very solid looking construct of a blue tooth device for his left ear with the Ring. In fact, it was identical to the one he'd left upstairs. As he answered the call, the artist glanced at Radu and Miss Roth and determined that they were rather engrossed in the functions of the espresso machine.

"Green Lantern, this is Superman. I need your help. Can you meet me at the Fortress in an hour?"

The artist recognized the Man of Steel's voice from the day he'd gotten the Ring, from the mission to Persia and other cases. "Yes. Sure. If you make it two hours, absolutely. But I need to know what this is about." Kyle muted the call for a moment and turned to Radu, "I have to take this."

Radu nodded.

Kyle opened the front door of the coffeehouse and used the Ring to step thru to his apartment on the top floor, rather than the sidewalk. "Okay, Superman, I can talk now."

"What was that all about?" Superman asked.

"How did you hear...? Super-hearing, right. Some of us aren't full time superheroes, we have private lives and jobs. I was painting a business logo for my landlord."

"Ok. I understand." said Superman. "Do I have your attention?"

"Yes."

"Good. Visual and Radio telescopes in the southern hemisphere particularly Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia have experienced anomalies that I believe are caused by tachyon field distortions. I need you to meet me at the Fortress to begin deciphering them and try to determine if they represent a threat to Earth."

"Yeah, two hours, no problem." _Except I have to finish painting the front glass of Radu's store. _Rayner thought about how the windows would look when they were finished.

Kyle opened the door to his bedroom and used the Ring to walk back through the front door of Radu's shop.

And stepped right into Rachel. She almost fell but Rayner caught her. "Where were you just now, Mr Rayner? We heard a sound like metal crumpling and Mr Petrovitch sent me to see if there had been a car wreck. We thought you'd been hurt."

"Well as you can see, I'm fine." Kyle said to the whole store. He looked at the windows and then at his paint cans... that looked like they'd been crushed by the pressure at the bottom of the ocean...or like their contents had been sucked out leaving a complete vacuum. Then he saw that his logo murals were finished beautifully. _My Ring must have done this when I was thinking about it earlier._

Rachel smiled; her lips barely moved but somehow her face lit up and her eyes shown. "Thanks for catching me."

Rayner picked up a paint brush and added a few flourishes and then signed it. "Okay, Radu. I'm done. I'll be seeing you."

Radu called something from the stock room

Kyle put his paint cans and brushes in his artist's bag and turned to go. Radu was still in the stock room and the shop's two customers were happily drinking their coffees and reading their tablet computers. Kyle walked over to the barista, about whom he seemed to know a great deal, but could not have met before today. He spoke softly, "Do I know you?"

"Not, yet. But you will," Rachel did that thing with her mouth and eyes where her face shown, but she barely smiled. "It's all going to work out. You'll see."

The artist clapped the barista firmly on the shoulder. "Okay then." He walked back to the door. From the door, he looked back at Rachel, and nodded as a gentleman would to a lady. He meant to say, Miss Roth, but what he said instead was, "Raven, I'll see you." And he was gone.

Radu stepped back out of the stock room and looked at his plate glass windows. "Ah, Kyle. Very talented. Always fine results. But either drags out like Michaelmas or done with amazing swiftness."

Present. Earth. Metropolis. Kent and Sullivan.

As the sky turned indigo in his second floor windows, Clark gathered ingredients for dinner in his kitchen. He'd changed from his red and blue uniform into comfortable cloths: jeans, a flannel shirt, work boots. Wearing a pale Amazon gown, Chloe joined him. She washed the spinach while Clark grated provolone and asiago cheeses and diced tomatoes, green peppers and red onions.

But Clark's collection drew her back out to the living / dining area before she crusted the salmon with basil and oregano. Part of the point of this evening had been for them to cook together and Clark resolved not be jealous of his collection.

Clark prepared the salmon and the vegetables and preheated the broiler whilst Chloe gazed admiringly around his lighted display shelves. She adjusted the gold clasp on her classic Amazon gown and reflected upon how far she had come – how far they had both come – from their former days at Smallville High School. "I'm completely absorbed with your collection out here. You've got African tribal masks, a small Aztec calendar wheel, a miniature Torah scroll, a Crucifix made by Michelangelo, a Buddhist prayer wheel, and then ordinary gray, brown and orange rocks. And that's just the east wall, to say nothing of the prints of Monet, Manet, and Petre on the other walls." She looked over her shoulder toward the kitchen. "And there's this one marine life painting here that I can't identify."

"That's the Rayner." Clark called over his shoulder as he placed the salmon under the broiler's flame in his oven.

Chloe turned toward the kitchen, facing Clark across the table and the bar. "Would that be Rayner as in Kyle Rayner, the photographer from the _Planet_'s Los Angeles bureau, the one who got those dashing photos of you in your final battle with Bizarro out in the Mojave Desert? That Rayner?"

"Yes." Clark stepped out of the kitchen to the wall with his paintings. "It's Rayner, as in _Planet_ International Editor Richard White's wingman from their Air Force days. It's Rayner as in got his first writing byline with me on the 'Green Lanterns Pass the Torch' article few weeks ago. And he's the man my son calls Uncle Kyle." Having clearly defined the painter of the marine life picture, Clark and Chloe nodded to each other and smiled. She turned and eyed the rocks, "Is this Clark's collection or Superman's?" needling him slightly.

He turned to face Chloe confidently. "It's _my_ collection, Chloe. The uniquely Superman stuff is all up at the Fortress, anyway. Well, except for the crucifix given by the Vatican and those rocks."

"A Michelangelo crucifix as a gift?"

"I did foil an assassination attempt against the Pope before the whole Zod thing a while back" before my son was conceived, _seems like only a year or so. _

"What about the rocks," Chloe picked one up absently, "they from the Moon or Mars or something?"

"Yes, actually. Luna, Phobos and Mars." He smiled as he saw her turn toward him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. "I want to get some from Ganymede and Titan early next year. Would you go with me?"

"What, go gallivanting across the solar system with you?" She opened one of the cabinets over the bar and took out plates as Clark went back to check on the salmon and get the pita bread ready. The cabinets had clear glass doors on both sides. The Amazon began setting the table.

"Yeah, isn't that what couples do? Take trips together?" Clark took a peek through the stove top into the oven. The salmon was browning nicely and the tomatoes, peppers and onions were toasting well in the olive oil.

"Well, yes." Chloe took the flatware and glasses Clark offered and set them out. "But normally they go to Mt. McKinnley or the Grand Canyon or even somewhere distant with exotic sunsets... like Fiji."

"Have you seen Olympus Mons on Mars?" Clark stood and looked far away... "Now that's a mountain! Or the sunsets on Io? They're stunning especially, when the volcanoes erupt at the same time."

"I only saw things like that watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos on PBS with you when we in junior high." Chloe set out wine glasses along with the water glasses. "A trip. Okay, a trip. How about we go to St. Augustine? There's a lot of history there. But, another planet...it's a little soon for that."

"You know what?" Clark said with only a trace of unpleasantness in his voice, "You're right. And I think it's a little soon for you to be staying over."

"So says the man who slept with me in Smallville while we repaired his mother's house!" Chloe shot back. She was testing boundaries.

"Slept, being the operative word," he parried verbally, "I slept. In my jeans and work boots."

"Touche" she relaxed. "So ... you saw my overnight bag in my car?"

"It was in the backseat of your car when I opened your door for you. It's not like I had to look through the lid of your trunk."

"Are you as observant as an FBI agent?" Chloe looked exasperated.

Clark smiled. "I did take some lessons from Batman."

Chloe laughed at the image of Clark, even as Superman, taking lessons from Batman. "Until a few days ago, I thought he was just an urban legend." She extended her right hand as she walked over toward him. When her hand touched his cheek, she said, "I want to share all of your life with you."

Clark took each of her hands in his ... They just stood together for a moment. Then Chloe continued, "The superhero stuff on earth. The mundane stuff at home. Other planets. Although I'd feel more comfortable going to off world with one of the Space Cop's rings, instead of just this lapel pin here." She let go with her left hand to briefly touch the Reserve Charge above her gown's clasp.

"And Chloe, I do want to share all of your life with you. The superhero work, the chores around the house, the wonders of nature and art. Except possibly for newspapering, sometimes. Lois and I are a great writing team. And we do have a child together."

"Ah, yes, the adorable munchkin.." she smiled fondly, enigmatically, looking into the middle distance over Clark's shoulder. Bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet, she pulled their hands together between them and looked solemnly into Clark's eyes "I want to help train him."

"Sure. Absolutely. We were already planning to have Br...Batman and Diana help. But that was before we knew you were still alive. I'm sure Jason, Lois and Richard would love to keep it all in the family." Clark sniffed. "The salmon's starting to scorch."

Clark went to fetch their dinner from the broiler and Chloe scooped up the plates and followed him. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Clark set the broiler pans of food onto the stove top and handed a spatula to Chloe. He called "Just a minute" and started to put his glasses back on. He thought about it for a moment. _I didn't need the glasses back in Smallville. Maybe I don't need the whole milquetoast routine in Metropolis anymore. I mean if I was on walk about traveling the globe for five years, I should have grown some confidence, some balls, right? No more Milquetoast, but the glasses are my disguise. _He put the glasses back on.

Chloe clouded slightly. "We have got to get you some more stylish frames than those."

"Definitely." Clark walked past Chloe and nervously reached down to give her a peck. It landed on her forehead. She looked up at him with one of her trademark 'okay that was loopy' expressions. Then put one arm on Clark's waist. With the other, she switched off the flame in the broiler. Chloe pulled Clark close to her and discovered she had developed another Amazon power as she levitated off the floor to kiss him full on the mouth_. _

The person at the door knocked again, more insistently this time. Clark resisted the temptation to turn both himself and Chloe around so that he could look through the door and see who was there. He stayed in the moment and just kissed Chloe.

"Mr. Kent are you in there?" A youthful voice, one coming into its own in manhood called through the door.

Clark pulled back, "Oh, God, I know that voice. It's Grayson. What's he doing here?"

"Grayson?" Chloe asked.

"Yeah, Dick Grayson. Ba-..Bruce Wayne's son... ward...whatever." He answered as he walked around the end of the bar, between the stools and the couch, to the door. He removed the chain and opened it.

"Um, hi." Grayson said. "Is Mr. Kent home?"

"Dick. It's me."

Grayson looked up at Clark intently. "Oh. Yeah. I didn't recognize you without the three piece suit."

"What's new in Gotham?" Clark asked standing in the doorway, not quite barring Grayson but clearly not yet inviting him in.

"Yeah about that...I'm transferring to Metropolis University." Dick put his hands in his pockets and looked at his shoes.

"What? Did something happen with you and Barbara?" Clark chided Grayson in good natured way. "Did the Commissioner run you out of Gotham or something?"

"Um. Not exactly." Dick shuffled his feet. "Something happened with B..Bruce. He threw me out."

"Oh, well, come in. We'll set an extra place."

"We? Who's here with you?" Grayson sniffed the air, smelled salmon, pita bread, moussaka and..perfume. "Since when does Clark Kent have a girlfriend?" He pushed past Clark. And gawked. "Mr. Kent. Do you know who that is in there? That's Trinity! " He stopped, dropping his clothes bag on the floor, and keeping his computer bag on his shoulder.

"What on earth are you doing having dinner with Superman's partner after he was just with her? Does he know?" Dick was getting way worked up about this. Probably projecting some of his anxiety about Bruce's decision.

"Okay. Look," Clark began, "I've been tripping over secret identity info all evening. So, let's get this all out in the open here. We're all trustworthy adults. And young Grayson here is a detective."

"Well, at GU I've been double majoring in forensic science and criminal justice..."

"No, Grayson. Bruce can face me down. If he wants to. It won't be the first time. Even this this week." Clark turned side ways so that Grayson and Chloe could shake hands. "Dick Grayson, this is Chloe Sullivan, my best friend in the universe. She is also Cassiopeia of the Amazons and evidently the Tabloids are calling her Trinity." He smiled at Chloe. "I didn't know that the press was actually continuing to use the callsign Trinity after Neo vanished."

"Well what did you expect while you had traded the cerulean suit in for a black one, the crimson cape in for a black trench coat, the red Kryptonian S in for black Oakley sunglasses, and slicked back the trademark spit curl?" Chloe elbowed Clark in the ribs and then shook Grayson's hand vigorously, "Dick Grayson, pleased to meet you. Let me introduce you to Superman, formerly known as Neo, formerly known as the Kansas Blur."

Grayson feigned surprise a fraction late at the info that Kent was Superman.

"And Cassiopeia, meet Robin." Clark put a hand on Grayson's shoulder. "First Partner of the Vigilante firm of Batman, Robin and Co."

Garyson laughed, "Good introduction. Um, yeah...about that. Not Robin any more. I did too much work with the Titans. Green Arrow broke his left shoulder, the one he uses to hold the bow, earlier this year, a while before you got back. The Titans asked me to stand in as their tactical leader on missions. Batman didn't like it that I stayed on with the Titans even after Green Arrow finished rehab."

"How conveniently inconvenient." Chloe remarked.

"Well, I've got a comfortable couch over there, Grayson," Clark extended a welcoming arm, "and you're welcome to it."

"Won't I be in the way?" Grayson queried.

"Chloe has quarters at the Amazon Consulate, under her Amazon name, Cassiopeia." Clark nodded in her direction. He and Chloe would have to keep their hands to themselves in front of Grayson. For tonight at least.

The Present. Earth. Gotham. Wizard Harry Dresden.

Earlier that day, as the sun meandered toward the horizon, Harry Dresden stepped off the bus at the Trailways terminal in Gotham. He was glad he couldn't fly. On a jet airliner, that is (the magical field that surrounded him tended to blow out electronic devices).

The wizard knew that at least some of his kit would have raised the ire of Transportation Security Agents. His staff resembled a hockey stick, until someone looked at up close and saw that brand striping were actually intricately carved runes and glyphs. The current blasting rod resembled nothing so much as a pro-mark marching band style drum stick and the metal stakes he'd brought along in case certain early reports about Batman turned out to be true were in fact tent pegs purchased at an Army surplus store. But the sword...Fideliccus would never have made it through security anyway. Being able to bring along his supernatural weapons of choice almost made up for all the hours stuck in a motor coach. At least it had been an express bus, only stopping in Cleveland and Pittsburgh on the way to the Eastern Seaboard and Gotham. Who ever Batman was he hadn't gone in for the cheap ticket.

Dresden paid a visit to the bus terminal men's room. Before leaving he washed his hands and face. He noticed how many men left without washing their hands and that disturbed him slightly. On man wearing a plain black coat and a nondescript black hat did stop to wash his hands. Dresden decided to dig in his backpack for toothbrush and toothpaste. The man in the black hat appeared to be whispering as he carefully washed his hands. The wizard noted the fringed tassels hanging from the man's belt and then it made sense.

Harry looked at his face before leaving. Two days' growth of beard was alright. He didn't look the forty-seven years that had passed since his birth. He could have easily passed for thirty.

The wizard picked up a tourist map and strode confidently out of the bus terminal. He reached into the pocket of his leather duster with his left hand. Fond memories of how the rune covered and heavily warded coat had saved his life and the lives of his friends so many times over the years drifted through his mind. The fingers of his left hand nimbly gripped the crystal tracking device he'd fashioned in his lab with a fragment he'd hacked off of the bat shaped surkien. He felt grateful that his left hand worked again; it had fully recovered from the burns years ago, and he appreciated it.

The streets were too crowded for him to use the device effectively in a strange place. In Chicago, where he'd invested so much of his heart and soul and faith, so much of his magic he could have made us of it in crowds like these, but not in Gotham. The place was too new.

Orienting the tourist map he struck out for Robinson park.

In the park Dresden found patch of dirt and sketched a circle in the ground with the end of his staff. Closing the circle with his will, the wizard cut himself off from all but the most powerful of external magical influences. He took the tracking device out of his pocket, spoke a phrase in broken Latin and the crystal swung around to a southeasterly to northwesterly orientation. It began to be tugged subtly toward the northwest. Finally it swung around and pointed straight for Wayne Tower.

___Wayne Tower? Batman works in Wayne Tower?_

___Batman has a job? How does a guy who's an urban legend have a job?_ Dresden had no answers for any of these questions but he knew that someone in Wayne Tower did. ___At least I won't have to walk all over town or spend all my cash on a cab ride out into the hinterlands and cliffs over looking Gotham Bay._

Dresden made his way up the avenue until he came to the Broome Street Monorail track. He hooked a right at the monorail and walked the final eight blocks to Wayne Tower. ___Stars and Stones how am I going find the one employee in a place like Wayne Tower? There must be 5,000 people who work in there on any given day._

He walked up to the entrance and stood to the side of the portico debating whether or not throw a glamour over himself and try to search the building floor by floor. Dresden noticed a man in a blazer who looked like Company Security step outside for a smoke.

While training his apprentice, he'd improved his own skills in the finely woven, intricate magic that she was uniquely good at, glamours for instance. She would face the trials later this year. He wanted to give her the extra confidence of having helped the master improve in one of her unique abilities. It also forced them both to analyze the way she applied her magic and the way he applied his so that he could learn how to do what she did the way she did it. Then he tried to find his own way. This reverie, while amusing and encouraging, wasn't getting him any closer to finding Batman.

___What? Am I hoping my crystal will suddenly change direction and lead me somewhere else? Do I think some one is just going to__—_Harry's musing was suddenly interrupted.

"Excuse me, friend. Are you Mr. Dresden?" It was the security guy. Dresden had ignored him while the man smoked. His name badge read Elliot.

"Who wants to know?" the Wizard's mind raced figuring out how to play this.

"The boss asked us all to keep an eye out for someone matching your description." Elliot explained

"Tall guy with dark hair who needs a shave?" ___When all else fails make a joke._

"No he just said you'd be wearing a long robe and carrying some kind of staff. I suppose a leather duster and a hockey stick are close enough."

Harry switched hands with his staff, "Right you are,"extended his right hand, "Harry Dresden. Pleased to make your acquaintance." The security man shook his hand and then the wizard gave a slight bow.

The security man took Harry inside, lead him away from the metal detector, and didn't x-ray his bag. Good thing too, his magical field would have shorted out the x-ray machine while Fideliccus and the metal tent stakes would have set off the metal detector from ten feet away.

Harry's surprised look gave the guard pause, "The boss said we could skip the searches with you. He trusted you."

"Who? The Security Director?"

"No."

"Mr. Wayne?"

The guard just smiled and led the way to an elevator. Harry touched his staff to the floor to ground his excess magical energy into the earth. While waiting for the elevator, he began some deep breathing techniques to calm the churning sea of emotions within him as these would stir up his magic unnecessarily. Finally he turned away from the Security man and whispered the Latin spell that usually suppressed his magical field for short intervals. It should do nicely for an elevator ride. He'd probably have to renew it a few times up in the office and research levels with a the technology that was doubtless up there in a place like the world headquarters of Wayne Industries.

The elevator carried them up thirty-odd floors without stopping to pick up any additional passengers. After winding walk through a maze of hallways and cubicles, the security man left the wizard in a nondescript alcove with some chairs and a desk that was missing its receptionist. Very little foot traffic passed this area and the best part was the view through the window at the far end of the passage. Thirty-some floors up, the building was somewhat narrower than at the base and the window was close enough to provide a panoramic view from Downtown to the suburbs and all the way out to the hill country that surrounded the metropolitan core. Golden rays of the setting sun made their way in through the window.

Dresden pulled out a paperback Nightside novel by Simon R. Greene. Harry liked the hero of Greene's supernatural detective stories, John Taylor. Taylor was cool. He was a Dude. And Greene was nowhere near as close to the reality of supernatural investigation as say, Jim Butcher. It was downright unsettling sometimes reading a novel by Butcher. Dresden mused that Butcher somehow read his journals or had a hidden camera following him. The adventures of Butcher's principal hero, Barry Tristan, bore an uncanny resemblance to his own.

Double doors opened down an adjoining corridor and the wizard heard twelve middle-aged men and women along with three young turks emerge. They passed by his alcove talking hurriedly and wearing the ubiquitous corporate uniform of dark conservative suit, splashy tie and briefcase or smart phone. Noting the older black gentleman and the hard young executive with a kind face that belied his troubled and driven heart, Dresden returned to his musing.

Not to say that reading Butcher's Tristan was like reading his own biography but Tristan did battle vampires and necromancers, had allies among the Faerie and the White Court, had been drafted into the Wardens and even operated out of St. Louis, not far from Harry's beloved Chicago.

The older gent with the bow-tie and sweater vest under his suit coat exchanged parting words with the executive and headed for the elevators himself. Harry laughed to himself as John Taylor magicked all the bad guys' bullets out of their guys. 'Imagine what I can do with … say the fillings in your teeth or the vital organs in your chest. What if I tried to pull out a pancreas, missed and took out a lung instead.' The bad guys always beat a hasty retreat after that one.

"My father always liked the view from this alcove. One of the last things he did with me before he died was to watch a sunset with me here."

"Mr. Wayne," Dresden stood but did not hold out his hand to shake. The crystal had begun to vibrate. This was his quarry. He summoned up his magic. ___If the early reports were true...If Batman were truly 'a creature of the night that flew off of roof tops and drank blood...__'_ Smoke drifted up out of the c.p.u. box of the computer sitting on the desk.

Wayne's face twisted for a moment at the smell, but he was to much the gentleman to say anything about it. "Mr. Dresden, I think you'll find after we get to know each other that we're a lot more alike than you think."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that Wayne." The Wizard patted the front of his duster where the pocket holding the metal tent stakes were located. "I mean what could a blue collar working stiff like me have in common with a business tycoon like you?" All he'd have to would be to get Wayne to bottom floor and ground him, run his vampyric energy into the earth. Permanently.

Dresden coming prepared to fight Batman as a vampire was suggested by Metropolis Kid.


	3. How to Save a Life

A/N - Okay, I've scaled back the ending so that it fit's into a T/PG-13 rating; still gets the point across.

A/N 2– Rebecca appears courtesy of Eviefan. Stan Lee's cameo as Janitor Stan appears without his permission or that of the producers of Ultimate Spiderman. Harry Dresden appears without permission of Jim Butcher who nonetheless agrees not to turn me into a toad.

The present. Earth. Gotham. Bruce Wayne.

Bruce led the way into the elevator when it arrived. The inside of the elevator was covered in honey colored mirror panels. He noticed a shiny reflection coming from inside of Dresden's Duster. "I thought it was wooden stakes."

The wizard deadpanned, "I thought Superman had the x-ray vision."

"Reflection in the mirror walls."

"You've been watching to many TV shows with nimble young blondes and brooding twenty-something men." Dresden still didn't smile.

Okay, Batman's brain went into overdrive. My chosen recruit has found me. Harry Dresden, the North American Commander of the Wardens of the White Council has done exactly what I wanted him to do. He tracked me down. He's hands down the best combat wizard in the US, also best on the continent and oh incidentally, according my research, maybe the best one on the planet as well and he's right here here in a tiny elevator with me. This would be great except, he thinks I'm a vampire. Evidently a sworn enemy of the White Council of Wizards, a Black Court vampire, too, if he's prepared to stake me into the ground.

Can I out Kung-Fu this guy? Probably not. He's got his staff and all those stakes. And me here without my utility belt: no explosive powders for misdirection, no magnetic grapnel gun to get away.

What do I do?

I prove that I'm human and therefore one of those he is sworn to protect as Wizard. How do I prove to him that I'm not a vampire? "Do you have garlic, too? Or a crucifix?"  
Dresden pulled garlic cloves out of one pocket in his duster and a small rosary with a crucifix out of the other. He held them up. Wayne collapsed against the far wall. Dresden dropped the garlic and crucifix and reached for the stakes in his pocket.

Wayne cracked up into peals of laughter, "You should have seen the look on your face. It was priceless." Picking up the dropped items, Wayne handed the crucifix back to Dresden. He held the garlic up to his nose and smelled it. "Good garlic. Mind if I hold on to this? I think Alfred is making Italian tonight. It will go great with his rolls."

The wizard chuckled. Greatly relieved.

-x-

Later in the Cave, Bruce showed Harry the video of the terrorist in the market. The wizard watched thoughtfully. "What do you think, Mr Dresden?"

"Guy says ten seconds of random syllables and then everyone drops dead? It's some kind of incantation."

"Is that all you've got? I buy you a bus ticket and feed you Alfred's meatballs with peppers, onions, mushrooms and red sauce and all you've got for me is 'incantation.' I already knew that."

The wizard ignored him. He gestured in the air and the video fast-forwarded. His technology phage again. Wayne rewound the video and offered the remote to Dresden. "It would just get fried like that PC at your building. Run it back and show me the guy do his thing in slow motion along with the first few deaths."

Wayne complied and Dresden watched thoughtfully. "Once more." He watched again. "It's some kind of short range solution to the anti-life equation. That's the only kind of incantation that could kill that quickly. Anything else requires more preparation on site or a bunch more words." His brow furrowed and he looked worried.

"What is it, Dresden?"

"This is bad. Very bad."

"What is? What is so bad that it has the North American Commander of the Wardens of the White Council and arguably the most skilled combat wizard alive today worried."

"Someone has opened the Outer Gates."

"And?"

"Don't say it's name." Dresden took out a small mirror, his investigator's notebook and a ballpoint pen. Motioning Bruce over, He wrote D-I-E-S-K-R-A-D.

Bruce took the mirror and held it up next to what Dresden had written. 'D-A-R-K-S-E-I-D."

"The Big D and his kind were banished from the realm of earth around 7,000 or so years ago. The were all locked behind the Outer Gates. They were some of the most invincibly powerful, incredibly malevolent, completely...other beings. The D himself was like a force of nature..." The wizard drifted for a moment. Then he refocused and continued. "It took all of the Old gods, the five remaining Archangels, the Amazons and the most powerful sorcerers of the day all working together to pull it off. And none of them have anything to do with the likes of us anymore."

"Did you say Amazons?" Wayne asked

"?" Dresden sounded glum.

"I know some."

"Oh, really..." Harry perked up slightly

"And the Archangels? Did you mention them?"

"Yes. Don't tell me..."

"No. Not an Archangel, just one of their lieutenants but he's got Them on speed dial."

-x-x-

Diana, Crown Princess of the Amazons, looking every inch the royalty that she was in a classic dark blue gown with red and white trim, rode down the early 20th century era cage-style elevator with Alfred. Alfred wearing a tuxedo t-shirt over black silk pajamma bottoms acted every bit the elegant butler with a small hand trolley, carrying teas, espresso, an assortment of smoked nuts, dried fruits and dates. It also had a champagne bucket full of ice and glass bottles of Coke.

"Princess," Bruce stood up from the stool he'd been sitting on at the workbench. He grabbed Harry's arm and the Wizard stood up somewhat clumsily. "It is so good of you to grace us with your presence even at this hour."

"Oh, not at all, Bruce." the Amazon replied as the butler opened the cage and offered his arm while she stepped down onto the smoothed floor of the Cave. "And please it's Diana. This is the only place in the world where I can just be me."

Harry leaned over to Bruce and whispered, "How did she get here so fast?"

Alfred spoke up as he pushed the trolley out of the elevator cage, "I trust the prin-cess parked the invisible jet in her usual spot?"

The princess turned and smiled broadly, "Who can tell? It is invisible, after all."

"Well, begging Milady's indulgence, but you see, we assigned you a parking place so that Master Wayne and Miss Selena wouldn't damage the invisible landing gear of your wonderful jet aeroplane with the Ferrari again. For that matter, I quite gave meself a fright in the Bentley that one time."

Bruce spoke up again, "Your Royal Highness, Crown Princess of Themyscara, Diana of the Amazons, may I present to you Warden Harry Dresden, of the White Council of Wizards and Continental Commander of North American Wardens."

The princess extended her hand. Harry, well versed in olde worlde courtesy, bowed deeply on bended knee and took her hand.

"Why thank you, Warden Dresden." Diana blushed. "It is so rare to meet a man these days who knows how to properly pay respects to Royalty."

Dresden released her hand. "Charmed, I'm sure, Milady and the pleasure is all mine." as he rose, the wizard looked up at the ageless princess admiringly.

Bruce elbowed him and whispered, "Diana was a young girl when Merlin founded the White Council about 800 years ago."

"That doesn't mean she isn't totally hot." Harry whispered back. Then in his full voice, "Begging Milady's pardon, it's been a long dry spell since this Wizard laid eyes or anything else on a woman as beautiful and gracious as yourself."

Diana smiled and giggled slightly to herself.

Bruce made himself some traditional Chinese chai. Diana selected a demitasse of espresso and Harry helped himself to a Coke. "Glass bottles, too. I'm impressed, Mr. Wayne. How did you know I like Coke?"

Bruce smiled enigmatically.

Alfred answered, "Master Wayne rang up your dear friend Detective Sergeant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigations Section on the telephone, he did. She told him. She also told him that she would personally kick Master Wayne's arse in Akido or any of three other martial arts if he let you get yourself injured in this endeavour."

The butler left the nuts and Cokes on the work bench in the center of the Cave and withdrew to the side with the trolley of teas, hot water and espresso to the side.

The vigilante, the wizard and the princess enjoyed their drinks and some nuts and dates in companionable silence. Alfred pulled up a stool for the Princess and they all took a seat.

Diana spoke up, "To business then, I checked with the Archive, before I came Bruce. We exiled The D to a world about 40,000 light years distant. So in order to complete his revenge plan against earth, he and his hoards will have to bridge 40,000 light years across space and then break through the threshold magic of the planet."

Bruce dipped his tea bag in his hot water, allowing it to fuse. "A planetary threshold? I'm familiar with a household threshold. It's like how vampires can't come into a house unless they're invited. It's like how Harry here needed me to invite him into my house upstairs and then into the Cave. He couldn't use the full range of his wizardly abilities inside my threshold, unless I invited him.

Harry set his Coke down. "This will be a supernatural attack from off-world." He picked up a stylus and began to draw on the surface of the worktable. It lit subtly from within and turned a uniform light brown. The electronic surface held a couple of lines and then faded back to its inert marble-like appearance.

Alfred looked in a side cabinet and produced a pot of ink, an old fashioned quill, and a length of architectural paper. He set these before the wizard.

Harry carefully repositioned his Coke. He drew his diagram of the earth and an attacking fleet while he spoke, "As I was saying, even after the attackers arrive in orbit they will have to breach the planetary threshold. No supernatural entity good, evil, or otherwise can cross that threshold uninvited without considerable effort and a diminished ability to use its powers within the threshold." He sipped his Coke.

"All the living things on this planet contribute subtly to the planetary threshold magic, but it is made strongest by the humans and our collective will to live, to thrive and to make this planet our home.

"The D and his hoards will have to breach that threshold on their way into the planet. This breach will require an enormous amount of energy which will leave them diminished in their ability to use their powers once they arrive here on earth.

Bruce peered at the drawing and set down his tea on top of the paper. "Unless they draw that power from some where else."

Dresden's face darkened as though he saw the implications. Diana, ever the idealist needed it explained, "What do you mean?"

Dresden looked ashen, "I think he's talking about Death Moment Energy physics."

Bruce made a gesture as though tipping his had and looked over to Alfred who mimed chalking up a a point. Bruce explained, "Your peoples both surely remember what the Aztecs accomplished with a handful of human sacrifices and a few pyramid amplifiers. The D and the invaders could draw the energy from suicides, murder and terrorism."

It was the Princess's turn to look ashen while the wizard nodded in agreement. The Bad Guys would draw particular Power from the suicide or murder of those with supernatural abilities.

Diana asked, "How would they get these suicides, murders and terrorism? They're 10s of thousands of lightyears distant?"

Dresden smiled mirthlessly, "They traffic with supernatural entities that operate here in the realm of Earth. I think this explains some of the subterfuge we've seen against the White Council. It was the D working through the Black and Red Vampire Courts and the necromancers to weaken the White Council prior to the attack. We'll have to -"

Wayne's face took on a stony resolute determined look. "Well they've tipped their hand with this enchanted terrorism in the Middle East and Indonesia."

Harry looked up at Diana, "What happened to his voice?"

She looked a the warden, "The Vigilante may have donned neither cape nor cowl, but he has nonetheless assumed that persona." then she smiled at Batman, "You have a plan?"

Batman replied, "When does Batman ever not have a plan? First step in the plan get the military to pull together a team of Capes to help fight this thing."

"Why a team of Capes?" Harry asked. "Shouldn't I mobilize the Wardens and the entire White Council?"

"Your people work on the edges of perception," Batman replied with his patience clearly running thin. "They have for centuries. Something this big may pull the White Council out where the public can see them. A new team of Capes will gather the eyes and fascination of public onto the Team, freeing the White Council to do its work. Also this kind of supernatural threat will turn the public against anyone with special abilities; the Capes have a better chance of not getting themselves rounded up by elite soldiers in powered commando suits and herded into gas chambers, if they've come together as a team with mutual accountability and oversight and shown the public good will in advance."

Diana appeared to be going through a mental list of contacts, "Whom do we know with contacts in both the Cape and military communities?"

Harry spoke up, "The Midwestern Arcane reported that the Space Cop, the guy out in LA with the ring, he was an Air Force fighter pilot.

While refilling the Princess's espresso, Alfred interjected, "That's already been covered, it has, gentlemen and Miss Diana."

"How thoughtful of you, Alfred." Batman growled

The wizard glanced around at his companions, "How did you-; How did he -?"

Alfred answered for himself "One does not last long as the Batman's batman without anticipating his needs from time to time. I spoke with Agent White nearly a month ago. Richard White has been recalled into the Air Force with a report date in ten days' time."

Batman smiled confidently. He gestured to Alfred who offered his arm to Diana.

The butler piped up, "Shall, I prepare a second guest room for the Princess?"

"No, thank you Alfred." The Princess winked at Batman, "I think Selena would claw my eyes out if I were to stay over while she's out of town."

Batman turned to Harry, "You contact your people, Warden. I'll put the word out to the Capes, the cops and the three letter agencies. We've got suicides, murders and terrorism to stop."

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Jason White.

Wednesday started off as a fairly typical morning in the White household. Richard and Jason woke up first. They both kind of stumbled around getting to the bathroom. Richard reminded his son to brush his teeth. Little did they know the steps Jason would take today into a larger world.

The two met up wearing gym shorts and t-shirts in the work out room. A pull-up bar hung from the ceiling, a bench press sat to one side and a Pilates ball sat in the corner. Lois used the ball in the evenings. Daddy and son stretched out together. Richard spread a workout mat on the floor and Jason dropped for push ups while he jumped on the pull-up bar. Knowing that his son's powers were already available to him in emergencies like on Luthor's yacht, he wondered how long he would continue be able to do more push-ups and pull ups than Jason.

Neither of them had enough brain power to talk much, but they smiled and encouraged each other as they moved through push-ups, sit-ups, squats, pull-ups, flutter kicks and a few other exercises.

By this time the coffee maker had turned itself on and brewed the coffee Richard had set up the night before. Sometimes Lois would be up by now. Sometimes not. She was less of a morning person than Richard and Jason. Today she wasn't. No smell of scrambled eggs, nor turkey bacon drifted through hall as the two exercisers stepped out from the workout room, only coffee.

"I guess it's smoothies for both of us today, huh." Jason looked up at his Daddy.

The two shared a knowing look and Richard said, "I'll cut some fruit up to go in them."

"Okay, Dad." Jason smiled and scampered off to get showered and dressed for school.

Richard's unassigned ringtone sounded from his cellphone as he dug melons out of the fridge, blueberries out of the freezer. He'd call them back later. Grabbing the cutting board and a knife, he quickly chopped up some fresh fruit for the smoothies. The threw the melon and blueberries into the blender along with six scoops of protein powder. Almond milk and ice would go in right before he blended.

On his way to the shower, Richard knelt next to Lois's side of the bed.

She rolled over and put her back toward him, "Go away."

He put a hand on her shoulder, "Good morning. We'll leave some smoothie mix in the blender for you."

She pulled a pillow over her head.

The editor rubbed his fiancée's shoulder. "We need to talk about a wedding ceremony soon. Something simple. I don't want to off to war without exchanging vows and rings."

The love of his life pulled up an edge of the pillow. "Okay, but when you get back we have a big ceremony for everyone."

"Deal." Richard stepped off to the shower.

Lois dragged herself out of bed and threw on a robe. She shuffled out to the breakfast nook where she added almond milk and ice to the blender and made the smoothies.

Jason was already there, dressed neatly with his hair combed. Sort of. He stood there silently with his eyes closed. Lois wasn't particularly religious, but her son rarely missed his morning prayers. She wondered whether Clark or Richard had taught him and realized it had probably been both. Richard prayed in the shower of all places. Clark actually talked to God off and on throughout the day the way Jason described it.

As she watched her son, Lois envied his faith and wondered when she'd lost hers. Thinking back she realized it had been about the time the world concluded Superman was really gone. When her son opened his, she kissed him and then went back to bed.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Richard White.

Richard stepped out of the shower to another ringing phone. Caller ID showed a Daily Planet number. Doubtless his uncle, whom he didn't want to talk with until after he'd had a chance to speak with Rayner. The International Editor dutifully picked up the phone and was greeted not with hello or good morning but with, "When are we going to talk about you going back in the Air Force?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Do you think a bird told me? I was a reporter and a damn good one before I was Editor-in-Chief."

"I'll call you in an hour or so, after I've dropped Jason at school."

Richard shaved and dressed quickly reminding himself not to deride Lois for sleeping in. Things just went smoother when she helped out. He looked at his watch. Jason could have a couple of Road Runner cartoons while he returned the mystery call. They could go over spelling words on the drive. The editor tied his tie, ran a comb through his hair, grabbed a dark blazer from the closet and walked out to check his phone.

Los Angeles area code. Hmmm. At this hour? Richard dialed it back.

"Kyle Rayner." a tired voice said from the other end of the line.

"Did I wake you, Rayner?" the newsman's concern was genuine.

"Yeah. I finally drifted off." came the faint voice from LA.

"Well, you called me." Richard looked for the Road Runner DVD and found Jason had already picked up a Spider-man comic. He smiled. His son loved to read. "What's up, Kyle?"

"Couldn't sleep before. Thought I'd return one of your seventeen missed calls over the weekend. What's going on?"

"Oh that. Yeah. I've been recalled," running short on time, Richard reached for the almond milk and poured some more into the smoothie mix. Lois always made them thicker than he liked. Then he stirred with a wire whisk.

"It's about time!" A note of enthusiasm crept into the Kyle's voice.

"Yeah, the orders are for Task Force 160." Richard sounded less than enthusiastic.

"Special Operations. Your father's command.

"He built it. It will always be his." The editor took a sip of his smoothie

"So, what can I possibly do for you, Captain White."

"Actually, it's Major."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Says so on the orders." Richard's face showed the merest crack of a smile at the promotion. "I don't want to go TF 160. Not until I can figure out what the Agent's angle is..."

"Brah," the Californian began, "I am the Wing Chief Operations Officer. Not Adjutant and Chief Personnel Officer."

"Oh..." the Easterner sounded very small now.

Something that might help his former wingman floated at the edge of Rayner's mind. "Look, I know we've got some in-lieu of Army taskings. Fort Riley always seems to want more Air Force and Navy personnel to fill out the ranks of the MiTTs."

"What? The Army's fighting a war with oven mitts now?"

"No they're combat advisors to the Iraqis and the Afghans, Military Transition Teams."

"And you can get me into one of those?" the newsman sounded hopeful.

"I'll have the Adjutant call you later." the line went dead. The fighter pilot and artist was asleep again by the time the newspaper man realized he'd rung off.

Richard asked Jason about the comic he'd been reading and listened for a couple of minutes before telling him to grab his book bag. The editor found his computer bag and called a goodbye to Lois, then he and Jason left for work and school.

On the drive over to the Montessori school, Richard quizzed Jason on the spelling words he'd downloaded from the school's web site the night before. Like usual, Jason already knew them. He hadn't inherited his mother's 'dys-spellia.'

"Are you goin' off to war, Daddy?"

"Maybe. Yeah. I'm going to try to go help the Iraqis learn how to keep their country free."

"Why did the Air Force call you? Why not Uncle Kyle?"

"Uncle Kyle will go again in a few months. They called me because..." Richard almost told hs son about Agent White_. Lois calls her father the General. Mine is the Agent. She made her peace with Sam Lane some years back. I've never made mine with the Agent. After he set up Task Force 160 and spent my junior high years getting it going like he wanted it, he'd disappear for months at a time. He stopped wearing his uniform. Stopped shaving. Stopped talking to me or mom or my brother and sister. And now he wants me back, that bas- _Jason's Daddy takes a deep breath and finishes answering his son's question, "They called me because I'm a graduate of the United States Military Academy. This is what Academy graduates do. We answer our country's call. But mostly because it's my turn. I've been on the sidelines with you and your mom for years. It's my turn now."

"Oh. Are you gonna die?" Jason turned his face toward the window.

Richard could see Jason's thousand-yard stare faintly reflected. "I could. If my time is up. But I still remember my training. I will do everything I can to come back to you and your mom. Besides, I think your father will watch out for me."

"Why would he do that?" Jason continued to stare.

Richard slowed and swerved around traffic; they'd nearly reached Jason's school. "Because he loves you. Because he's my friend." _And I think because he still loves your mother._

Jason suddenly turned earnest eyes to face his daddy, "Are you going to go away for five years like Father did?"

"No, only about a year and a half."

"Okay. Can we listen to music now?"

"Sure." Richard plugged his iPod into the stereo and punched up 'How to Save a Life' by the Fray. He and Jason sang along to it the rest of the way to school.

-O-

Richard walked into the bullpen at ten minutes to eight. A quick glance around confirmed that Lois wasn't there. Except when she was out chasing a story (which was most of the time), it wasn't like Lois to be later than 7:30 getting into the office. At least on days when he took Jason to school (which was most of the time).

The International Editor ducked into Sullivan's cube and picked up the phone to call home. Lois's cell was off. The landline rang seven times and then the message machine picked up. "Lois, Honey, is everything okay? Pick up the phone, would you?"

Click. Clunk. Sound of rustling fabric. "Go away, Richard. It's not worth it. Why should I go in? I just fill up my column inches today and they're empty again tomorrow. What's the use?" Lois 'Mad Dog' Lane broke into tears.

Richard rubbed his forehead and turned to look out the windows, what was going on here? "Look, I'll call Lucy or Diana and see if one of them can come by, all right? Let me get things going here, and I will come home and make lunch with you, hmm?"

Sniffles were his only reply.

"Okay, honey?"

"I guess." and then the line went dead.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Jason White.

Over at the Montessori School the children were in varying states of distress. Some were crying, those who were normally bullies were sulking in the corners. Others were punching eac hother Jason White's classroom facilitator put her head down on her desk and cried. The new Last Scion of Krypton went up to comfort her. She was inconsolable.

Jason thought for a moment, _What would Father do? Father would fly around really fast saving everyone._ Jason couldn't fly yet. So, he thought about what Uncle Bruce had taught him. Something his Uncle Bruce had once said about theatricality and misdirection came to mind instead. The lad jogged around to all the windows and pulled down the shades. Leaping as high as he could, Jason grabbed the overhead projector screen down. He cued Rebecca who turned out the lights.

"Ladies, and Gentlemen!" Jason began loudly and with all the theatricality he could muster, "Crocodiles and reptiles. I come before you, to stand behind you and tell you something, I know nothing about." Some of his classmates had quieted others had come to the front and sat down to listen. "This Friday, the day after Saturday, there will be a ladies tea for men only." Several students cracked smiles. One chuckled.

Jason had their attention now, but he forgot the rest of the words. He smiled sheepishly and made an elaborate gesture spreading both hands open. _Ooops, I'm sorry. _Pantomiming, he took off a pretend top hat as though her were the ringmaster of an imaginary circus and pointed dramatically to Rebeka with an imaginary cane.

His best friend piped up dramatically as well, "One dark night, In the middle of the day, Two dead boys went out to play. Back to back they faced each other; drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise and he came and shot those two dead boys. If you don't believe this lie is true, go ask the blind man. He saw it, too." Rebecca bowed deeply and looked over the see that Jason had the overhead projector plugged in and positioned in front of the screen. As she pointed back to Jason she saw that the whole class had quieted down and most were seated in a half circle around the two friends.

Jason promptly flipped on the overhead and began making shadow pictures with his fingers. He made a dog and then a bird. Rebecca then stepped in and made a few while Jason walked through the group of students to find a couple who were eagerly paying attention and whispered "Would you like to go up and make animals, too?" He stood them up and walked forward. Rebecca helped them make a couple. Then brown haired Vikki smiled up at Rebecca and raised her hand. Jason went around to her. Vikki wanted to help other students up to the front. Jason, Rebecca and Vikki exchanged smiles. Vikki began to cue up the other students, and those who had gone up to make shapes, she help back to their seats.

Sounds of chaos and screaming from other classrooms began to drift in, so Jason looked through Miss Bei's collection of CDs and found an Enya disc. He popped it in the stereo and turned the volume to a moderate level. Relaxing music filled the classroom. A couple of sounds like cars backfiring came from the direction of the Administration Offices. Jason wondered what he could do and decided that keeping his friends here okay was enough.

Soon a knock came at the door. Jason went over to answer it. The Headmistress poked in her face, looked this way and that. Seeing no problems she patted Jason, Rebecca and Vikki on the head. She asked the students to play a game lining their desks up near the chalkboard and crouching behind them. Then she left the classroom. Jason caught Rebecca and Vikki's eyes and gave them each a big thumbs up.

* * * The Rest of this story is rated T/ PG-13 not for the type * * *

* * * and level of violence, but for the place in which it occurs. * * *

* * * * * * Reader discretion is still advised. * * * * * *

Meanwhile, the Headmistress and other Administrators staff continued quickly through the other grade levels. Back in the Administration Offices, the school secretary sprawled out across the floor breathing rapidly and drifting into shock in a slowly expanding pool of blood. The smell of cordite lingered in the air. A cellphone laid just out of her reach on the floor showing a call in progress to 9-1-1. "Hello? Hello? Can you describe the gunman?" came from the phone's ear speaker in a small tinny voice.

The door leading from the school's front office into the main classroom corridor closed behind a man with tufts of bright orange hair sticking out of his head at odd angles. He wore a long coat and carried a six-shooter in each hand. In several holsters hidden about his person, the madman kept other small guns and knives. He'd seen the reports on the news this morning of people jumping from skyscrapers and bridges. He knew the cops and Capes would be otherwise occupied. The new Voices, Voices from Beyond, told him to begin his rampage in one of the gun-free zones the City Fathers had so conveniently created for the likes of him, but tisk, tisk! Decisions, Decisions! A shopping mall or a school?

At the far end of the main corridor, Tony St. Thomas, an Air Force veteran and retired college professor who still wore tweed blazers – and also held an up-to-date concealed-carry permit for his 9mm semi-automatic Smith & Wesson pistol – stepped out of the gymnasium with the PE coach. In his retirement, Tony went to elementary schools and junior high schools to speak at career days. He usually talked about the fun of a career broadcasting and television production with the the elementary students and the importance of college with the 7th and 8th graders. Today was career day for the 4the and 5the grades at the Montessori School. They had all planned to hold an assembly in the Phys. Ed. Gym in about an hour. He and the gym teacher turned toward the front office to see about the commotion, neither had any idea that an armed madman was beginning a assault on the school.

Both Tony and the gym teacher saw the gunman as he drew down on the Headmistress. The Headmistress began dramatically pleading for her life and the lives of her students. The Phys. Ed. teacher freaked out and went blubbering back into the gym. Tony ducked down a side hallway, drew his Smith & Wesson and looked at his watch: a quarter to ten and the second hand was just passing the six. This was a day he'd hoped would never come. He looked at the back staff doors. They seemed to call him to safety outside the school building. He'd served his country as Sergeant in the Air Force and then taught several generations of TV news reporters and producers. He'd paid his dues. He could just walk right out. He was here to tell stories about the good old days in the control room at WUFT. He hadn't signed on to defend the school against madmen armed with who knew what kind of weapons.

Tony's son, the math teacher in Los Angeles, hadn't returned his last call yet. He hadn't seen his grandson since the prior summer. He wasn't old yet. Not really. Did he owe these people anything? The school district paid him gas money or $50 per week, but the Montessori School was pro bono. No he didn't owe them. He could just walk out the back entrance and drive away. No one would blame him. Even if he did stop this gunman, there would be others, elsewhere on other days. But at the same time, he possessed the means, the skills and the courage to handle this situation with no more casualties. The second hand on his watch closed in on the 12...9:46. He dropped the magazine in his sidearm to make sure it was fully loaded, reloaded it, and went find Janitor Stan.

"Okay, Tony." said Stan. "But I'm only going through with this cock-a-mamee plan of yours because you have a gun. I wouldn't go up against an armed crazy with only a push broom and a baseball bat, unless some sane person had another gun."

Two and half minutes later, Tony emerged from the side hallway across from the School Office, a few feet behind the gunman. He heard sirens in the distance, but they didn't seem to be headed this way.

The Headmistress continued weeping, blubbering and pleading. She knelt down before the orange-haired gunman to beg dramatically. She made sure she had his full attention.

Stan pushed his janitor's cart out of a classroom a little farther down the hallway and situated the headphones for his portable stereo on his ears. The Janitor began to blithely sweep the floor, getting closer and closer to the Headmistress and the gunman, all the while pretending not to notice them

Tony took a couple of quiet steps closer to the gunman and then used his left hand to jack a round into the chamber of his trusty Smith & Wesson. He still heard sirens outside, but they were still far away. He saw the madman from behind, apparently gloating over the Headmistress. The madman froze in mid-gloat at the sound of the Smith & Wesson. Tony called out, "Drop your weapon and surrender!" He spoke loudly, as though he were in charge. Drill Sergeant Simmes had called it a Command Voice, back in the Air Force NCO Academy, years ago.

The gunman whirled to confront Tony. The Headmistress ducked into a classroom. The Janitor tripped the gunman up with his push broom and he went down in a heap. The gunman's colt six-shooter went off has it hit the floor. The round struck Mr Tony in his left shoulder. He wobbled for a moment, but adrenaline had kicked in. He held his Smith & Wesson steady over the gunman while Stan the Janitor came up with a length of rope to tie the gunman's hands and disarm him.

About this time Superman arrived and gently wised the School Secretary away to a nearby Hospital Emergency Room. Two minutes later, the Son of Krypton returned, seeing the situation well in hand, he congratulated the quick thinking and courageous citizens and asked their names. He would need the names later when he wrote Clark Kent's article for the Daily Planet.

By the time the first police officers arrived on the scene, nearly eight minutes after the secretary had dialed 9-1-1, Tony and Stan had bound the gunman hand and foot and placed a gag over his mouth to mute his constant ravings. Stan had searched the gunman, stacking the knives on his janitor's cart and passing the firearms to Tony. Tony had tucked his own semi-automatic in the small of his back, under his blazer and rendered the madman's firearms safe, incase the gunman sprang from his bonds to resume his thwarted rampage.

As the pain of his wounded left shoulder flood his mind, Tony reflected on the events of the past eight minutes and wondered how many would lie in bloody heaps on the floors of the halls and classrooms of this innocent school, if not for his trusty Smith and Wesson, and his courage to use might for right. Maybe King Arthur had something there after all. He couldn't liken himself to the cop from the movie Speed or Stan to Sir Lancelot, but they had just saved lives. He dropped to his knees and raised his one good arm as he heard the police behind him. He hoped they had brought paramedics.


	4. Its all part of the Plan

Disclaimer - DC Comics and Warners graciously let us all play in their sandbox, and Jim Butcher agrees not to turn me into a toad for putting Harry Dresden in here without permission.

A/N - In the Trust AU, Dick Grayson isn't Nightwing yet.

Catching up to the Present. Interstellar Space. Darkseid's Armada.

In the command ship of an Armada whose goal was Earth, now only ten thousand light years away, a swirling mass of fury and rage stormed around the Bridge shouting about the incompetence of agents on Earth and how all the world must finally be made to pay. The grey and purple cloud of anger and wrath swirled about the command chair and began to take on the form of a person. First the red eyes formed like glowing coals from the Firepits of Apokolips. Then the craggy grey face that resembled the side of a hopelessly high cliff took shape. A purple chest and torso formed followed by granite arms and legs with purple boots finally slamming into the deck in front of the command chair. A crewman shouted, "Emperor on Deck" and officers at all stations immediately hopped to attention, glancing furtively about wondering which of them would be spared and if any would be made to Die for Darkseid!

**::REPORT::** thundered the voice of the god-Emperor of Apokilips, the Mighty Darkesid. Kalibak, Darkseid's unacknowledged son and captain of the command ship, stepped to the front of the Bridge Officers and began to list off the death tolls in various Earth cities. **::SILENCE!::** Commanded Darkseid. ::**DESAAD::** Darkseid rumbled. **::H****ow goes the storing of supernatural energies from these deaths to cross the planetary threshold of the Earth that I might wreak my revenge on the descendants of all those who banished me behind the Outer Gates****::**

A hologram of a thin form cloaked and hooded and shrouded in shadows appeared in front of Darkseid as Desaad projected in from a ship safely across the fleet. From this ship, the Chief of Suffering and Torment could take a Boom Tube to anywhere else, if Darksied unleashed his Omega Beams upon him. Or so Desaad fervently hoped. The last time he'd suffered the Omega Beams, Desaad had spent decades discorporated before he'd worked a successful incarnation into his present form. He had no wish to endure such torment again anytime soon. "It proceeds apace, my Master. The tanks are swelling even as we speak. Each death of one who can sense the supernatural, both depletes ranks of those who might oppose your Lordship and also fills the tanks with those energies with which Mighty Darkseid shall breach the threshold of Earth." Desaad neglected to cite which tanks, how many, how full, or how fast they were filling. And the whispering campaign of hopelessness, that his agents and those of Granny, waged within the minds of the mages continued even now. It's results could not be known out here in the fleet for some hours yet, the pesky Laws of the Universe got in the way of even such as the deities of Apokolips.

**::I SEE::** Darkseid looked thoughtful as he considered what Desaad had said and what he had left out. **::GRANNY! Is the subversion of the White Council complete?::**

Another hologram appeared next to Desaad as Granny Goodness, the stout and colorful Commandant of the Female Furies, had no more desire to feel the wrath of her Lord and Master than the Chief of Suffering and Torment. "It proceeds apace, Oh Master of All You Survey. Only that pesky Dresden, together with his assistants Ramirez and Elaine, still stand in your way."

**::And what of the heroes?::**

Granny Goodness continued, "As of the last survey probe, only that troupe of pitiful fools dubbed the Titans are active on Earth. What concern have such as you with those whose powers are merely speed, accuracy, mechanical limbs or talking with fish?"

**::And the Kryptonian?::**

"As of the last survey ship, he is lost in space, oh Great Darkseid. Still on that wild snarp chase to his homeworld prompted by that false information we supplied through Luthor."

Darkseid discorporated into a thunder cloud and disbursed throughout his Armada. Darkseid was focusing all of his will and all of his vast powers on his preparations for conquering Earth, destroying the Wizards and vanquishing the Amazons. The Titans, were mere stick figures, paper tigers that would easily burn under the gaze of his omega beams.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Lois Lane-White with Jimmy Olsen.

Lois and Jimmy put together an article and photos on lives saved, from several Daily Planet reporters and photographers as well as material from the news wire services work of the heroes in saving many of those who had been marked for death. "HEROES SAVE HUNDREDS" read the Headline on the Daily with a hyperlink to a story by Lois Lane-White and pictures by Jimmy Olsen and Planet Staff Photographers. The photo spread included shots of Superman pulling people off of train tracks, Steel catching people falling from buildings and Green Arrow suspended by his bow while sliding across a wire between two buildings with a person over his shoulders in "firefighters' carry."

Superman had flown around North America catching people as they jumped from buildings or threw themselves in front of buses, trains and subways. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter had done the same in South America while Chloe, Diana and the other Amazons covered the Mediterranean Region, including North Africa, the European Union and the United Kingdom and Green Lantern handled most of Asia. With a special despensation for direct intervention from the Arc Angel Uriel, Zauriel and the Eagle Host of Angels had saved as many as possible in Australia and around the Pacific Rim of Asia and the Americas.

Grayson had used Clark Kent's press pass to get past security at the Continental Edison Building and the First State Tower in Metropolis. He'd managed to talk about a dozen goth kids and an ER nurse down off the ledges. Then he'd grabbed one with everything from a hotdog vendor and moved on to the Delaware Bay Bridge to continue talking people down.

Steel had flown around the rest of the city catching as many of those who threw themselves as he could. The Titans, including Green Arrow, Black Canary, Cybrog, Impulse, Raven and Aquaman, had covered New York and Boston.

Batman wasn't telling and no one knew exactly what he'd been up to, but in Gotham people kept showing up at the doors of the Salvation Army slightly dazed and asking for help while muttering about a "six foot tall walking bat" or a "masked man dressed like Dracula."

President Obama called for volunteers in a live address from the White House Rose Garden surrounded by the National Council of Psychiatrists all wearing white lab coats and seen by lip readers to be muttering under their breath about missing appointments with clients who really needed help.

Fox News reported a "Life Toll" of 9672 rescues confirmed by authorities around the world with another 32,014 unconfirmed reports. Sorting the suspicious deaths from the suicides would prove impossible and no one really wanted to think about that number and what it might mean, anyway.

At dawn weary heroes gathered in their various headquarters. Grayson joined Green Arrow, Black Canary, Cyborg, Impulse, Aquaman, and Raven at Titans Tower.

The Present. Earth. Gotham. Team Batman.

Batman met in his Cave with Catwoman, a duster clad Warden Dresden, the Amazon Princess in a regal white robe, Steel in his stainless armor and blue scalloped cape, and the Martian Manhunter in his blue cloak and red crossing belts. Martian J'onn J'onzz introduced Zauriel, Guardian Angel of the Eagle Host clad in celestial armor with wings and flaming sword, "Shortly after Kal-El took his...sabbatical, Zauriel requested my aid in combating another rebellion among the Angels. I thought it best to ask for the aid of him and his kind against the present supernatural threat."

There were handshakes, bows and curtsies all around. When Zauriel got to Harry Dresden, the Wizard planted his staff to take a knee and bow before the representative of the Courts of the Holy. Zauriel restrained him and he rose. The Angel spoke and his voice could be heard from the highest pitches, down to the deepest basses in the very bones, as though several choirs and pipe organs were making music together, _Warden Dresden, as I live and breath. It is I who am in your debt. _The Angel bowed gently from his waist to the Wizard.

"How's that again?" Harry wondered how he'd gotten into the deep end of this pool. He recalled the Arc Angel Uriel granting him Soul Fire as a means of combating the Morning Star and the Dark Powers, but this Zauriel was new to him.

"_A portion of my beloved Lasciel has returned to me in the Courts of the __Holy and she tells me that I have you to thank."_

_So, Lash found her way back to the Courts of the Holy after taking a psychic bullet for me in battle with the White Court of Vampires_, Dresden thought to himself. _Good for her_.

Catwoman crossed her arms, "So you're an Angel, straight from Heaven." She saw Zauriel nod his assent. "Not be Debbie Downer here, but does this mean Sister Agnes and the nuns at Saint David's School were right? Do I have to start going to Mass again now?"

"_Young Lady, the Almighty rewards all those who seek him in truth."_

Steel, who had served a tour in Afghanistan before becoming a weapons designer, an iron worker and a Cape, addressed the Angel as well. "If I might also ask one question."

"_You may."_

"In this war between the radicalized muslim terrorists and everyone else, whose side is God on?"

As Zauriel responded he first addressed Steel, "_The Creator doesn't take sides." _While he spoke, he turned his gaze to Harry and then settled upon Diana._ "It is the choice of all thinking beings to be on His side, or not._"

The moment passed. Batman adjusted his cape and went to the Computer. Harry Dresden quitely recited the spell he'd constructed to suppress the part of his magic that fouled most technology. Batman tapped some keys and screens lit up. He wanted to link with the Titans and see who else was out there. The Titans popped up on one Video Tele-Conference (VTC) screen. Major Richard White, in his Air Force uniform, and his father Agent White, in a simple black suit and dark glasses, popped up on another VTC screen as well. Batman frowned at Agent White. "I didn't give you this link."

Richard spoke up from his screen, "Dad, Agent White, why are you here. Are you representing Homeland and Justice and all the three letter agencies?"

"I represent a Two Letter agency," Agent White first addressed his son. "I represent the UN." Agent White spoke in a voice that conveyed he had seen things that would make most men quake in their boots and done things that would make lesser men vomit. His eyes narrowed on Batman. "President Bush 43 isn't the only one who knows that you're not just an urban legend." Then his gaze took in others gathered in the Cave and at Titans Tower as well, "President Obama isn't the only one keeping score. The Security Council is too." Agent White looked over his glasses at Batman.

Harry Dresden moved a bit behind Zauriel. He looked at the screens, not the cameras and thought invisible thoughts.

The Present. Earth. The Arctic. Trinity and Superman.

Superman, in red cape and blue uniform, and Trinity, in Amazon battle armor, had joined Green Lantern, in his stylized black and green pressure suit, at the Fortress. Together the three heroes linked into Batman's VTC to review the night's results. Kal-El saw White and Batman staring each other down. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing," said Batman from behind his cowl.

Agent White turned to face Superman. "We're watching you too, Boy Scout."

Superman mentally analyzed the knowing look given by Agent White and found that he couldn't crack it. He couldn't tell if the old man were hinting that he knew Clark's secret identity or if he were just bluffing, or if the Government finally had it in for the Capes, like in those popular Z-Men movies. "We must all work together against this common threat from off world."

Batman leaned into his mic, "You all know why I've called on you. We're facing a threat as big as any we're ever faced. Probably bigger, because I've called in the Courts of the Holy for this one." Batman paused and gestured back to Zauriel. He saw Agent White's frown lighten for a moment as though he couldn't see whom Batman was pointing out.

Batman continued, "We would be very wise not to say the name of the threat. We can try this Kal's way with hope and high-mindedness. I'm sure it will save more lives while that's what we're focused on." Batman nodded to Superman.

Superman stepped closer to his camera and opened his arms in a gesture of inclusiveness,"We all need to cooperate: The Government, the Military, the Capes. We need to get the Media on our side. I propose that the Capes join together and form a team..."

"Already got one" Green Arrow spoke from the back of the conference room in Titans Tower.

Superman nodded to the Archer, "Then maybe we need a League, since we seem to have several teams here on this video-link." Superman noticed Agent White's scowl deepen and heard him clear his throat. The Agent held his peace and listened as Superman continued, "We need to hold each other accountable and coordinate our efforts. Since any organization that can truly police world peace can also enforce global tyranny, we must use might for right as King Arthur and the Knights of Camelot did in legend. As the USA has been the one place in the world where people come for the opportunity to be the best at what the love to do, as the US has used it's military power overseas to bring liberty, rather than conquest, so too we must each be true to our highest self and keep the world safe."


	5. What's in a Name?

No money earned by me. No suits from War ners. And Jim Butcher agrees not to turn me into codfish.

What's in a Name

The Present. Earth. Ancient Catacombs so mewhere near Tehran. Harry Dresden.

"Remind me again why I followed you here ?" Wizard Harry Dresden, Warden of the W hite Council of Wizards, had searched th rough more than his fair share of dim, d ank underground labyrinths with water dr oplets falling off the ceiling in his ti me. Pipes and conduits lined the walls o f this tunnel though and that at least m ade this one distinct from the others. _No lair of evil scientists ever looked l ike this in any James Bond movie I ever saw. _A droplet of water hit Dresden in the fa ce. Another landed on the collar of his customary brown leather duster and ran d own his back. None of the spells engrave d into the leather made it repel water.. . bulletproof yes, fireproof certainly, knife, sword and stake repellant, defini tely; but not water.

"We're here to get the power source for the backup plan." A deep gravelly voice growled from a shadow next to the Wizard .

Harry thought for a moment about what it had taken to put the primary plan toget her. Under normal circumstances he'd hav e called in the whole White Council, but these were hardly normal times and hadn 't been for some time. The War between t he White Council of Wizards and the Red and Black Courts of Vampires had taken a heavy toll in lives cut short, but trea chery within the Council had forced Harr y outside of the channels he might have preferred. Who am I kidding? Even withou t the Black Council's treachery, I still would have gone to Ebenezar McCoy, Carl os Ramirez, Elaine Mallory and the rest of the Grey Council. It was odd that he' d found more allies among the traditiona l enemies of the Wizards: Lara Raith and most of the White Court of Vampires, as well as most powerful of both the Summe r and Winter Courts of the Fae had all s truck a temporary truce with each other and with Harry and Ebenezar's Gray Counc il forming a supernatural Coalition of t he Willing.

The Amazons and the Atlanteans had confi rmed the location on a mountain near the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea a s the point where Darkseid had been Cast out beyond the Outer Gates 10,000 years ago. Their records went back a lot fart her than the White Council's, and Harry hadn't been able to speak to Ivy the Arc hive in time.

The Coalition had tied into the Ley Line s, the Pyramids of Egypt and South Ameri ca, Easter Island, Stonehenge and a doze n other mystical places. They had focuse d all the supernatural energies from the se places and all the power they could b ring to bear through the network of Pyra mid amplifiers in Central America. It wa s certain that Darkseid would attempt to land Central America almost exactly on the opposite site of the world from wher e he'd been banished before. A circular locus a mile high over Colombia was wher e their trap would spring.

But Harry Dresden, like Batman, always h edged his bets with a back up plan. Or t wo.

The Israeli Defense Force had committed its entire nuclear arsenal and Admirals of the U. S. Mediterranean and Persian G ulf Fleets had committed as many of thei rs as they could get into position aroun d the mountain from which Darkseid had b een Cast Out previously. The U. S. Admir als had exceeded their authority, but re asoned that if their weapons weren't nee ded, they'd have them back in their ship s before the Pentagon found out, and if they were needed...it wouldn't matter an yway.

Neither Harry nor the Bat was satisfied that they could unleash enough energy wi th the weapons at their disposal. Green Lantern had assured everyone that he cou ld detonate all the weapons including th e one Harry was after now at the same in stant and safely channel all the energy through the Merlin of the White Council or Dresden to power a Spell of Banishmen t if the primary plan failed. But Harry wasn't satisfied that they had enough ra w power available, besides he'd sleep wh en they were done here.

So here he was in ancient catacombs unde r Persia with an urban legend and two Mo ssad Commandos in black ninja suits abou t to steal a nuclear weapon. After all i f worst came to worst, who among the sur vivors would cry foul? And if not, what would the Mullahs of Tehran do? Would th ey call the UN and say that a Wizard, an urban legend and two Jews had stolen th e nuke they weren't supposed to have, th e one they'd been saving for Tel Aviv? N o, they certainly would do no such thing . Soon Harry and his black clad companio ns would roll the weapon through a porta l in the Never-never to a secure locatio n outside Jerusalem and then Harry would sleep until the Boom Tubes split the sk ies and Darkseid arrived.

A black-gloved hand attached to a black, spiked forearm extended from the pool o f shadow and formed a fist. The Wizard s topped. The two black clad commandos beh ind him stopped. The passage way ahead o f them formed an intersection a few metr es ahead. Dresden's sense of life wasn't alerting him to any approaching guards. But there was enough electricity and ma gnetism running wild down here to foul h is senses out past a few metres, highly attuned though they were to the natural world and man made realms above.

The wizard and his companions pressed th emselves against the walls of the tunnel and crouched among the pipes and condui ts that crisscrossed the sides of the tu nnel seemingly at random. As they waited Dresden counted seconds and studied the tubing and piping. Patterns began to em erge as he realized that he was looking at several plumbing, air handling and el ectrical systems added on top of each ot her down the decades.

Voices began to echo from the crossing p assage. A mixture of Farsi, Arabic and E nglish technical jargon floated down tow ard them along with a rhythmic beat of f ootsteps. The Wizard realized the others were all looking at him expectantly. Th ey weren't looking with wide-eyed amazem ent, awaiting his astonishing powers, no they were glaring with impatience becau se it was **his turn **to deal with the approaching threat.

Dresden shoved his hands down into the p ockets of his duster and found the pebbl es he'd brought from the shores of Lake Michigan. He summoned up his own sense o f confusion at wandering these tunnels. He focused his feeling of fatigue from t rekking thru the Never-never to differen t places around the globe for going on f ifty-six hours, now into his third day w ith about six hours of sleep total. He h ad been setting up the biggest, most com plex series of interlocking spells and w orkings he'd ever laid down. He poured a ll his fatigue and disorientation into a few of the pebbles and then tossed them down the hall in the direction of the v oices.

The commandos looked at him with conster nation and mockery in their eyes, as tho ugh they fully anticipated having to ste p into the passage and waste their preci ous Kung-Fu chops and Vulcan nerve pinch es bringing down the approaching interlo pers. His other companion simply looked inscrutable in cape and cowl and shadow. 

The footsteps of the approaching scienti sts or guards or whoever drifted out of rhythm. They began to stumble. Three men in white coats crashed into a heap in t he intersection of passages. Each groped on the floor for his glasses, found the m, put them on his face, then frowned an d traded. Finally they climbed back to t heir feet and walked resolutely back the way they had come, without ever once lo oking in the direction of the commandos and Dresden.

The commandos gazes did not show even an amazed eyelash, but they did exhibit a touch of respect.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Richard 'Dick' Grayson.

Grayson's eyes opened and his right hand hit a leather wall. He pawed around wit h his left hand and found cheap cotton s heets and rough flannel blankets. Rollin g over, he fell smack onto the floor. Be fore he opened his eyes, he considered t he smells around him, real leather, the rich smell of oak furniture, the bright sent of freshly squeezed orange juice... sliced melons, seasoned pinto beans, ho t tortillas and grilled salmon. Definite ly not an Alfred Pennyworth breakfast. A lfred was partial to porridge, baked bea ns, stewed tomatoes, and poached eggs, w hen left to his own devices.

The college student opened his eyes and saw not a trashed dorm room, nor his bed chamber in stately Wayne Manor, but Afr ican tribal masks flanking a book case f illed with not just books but also totem s and symbols from different religions a nd on the far wall, beyond an oblong gla ss table three inches thick, hung painti ngs from European masters. And then he r emembered. _I transferred from Gotham State, to Metr opolis University. I'm crashing with Mr. Kent. Bruce threw me out. Well actually he declared that I was spending too muc h time with the Titans and couldn't be R obin anymore because Robin was Batman's crimefighting partner, not the tactical leader of the Titans. _

_So arrogant. Always right. His way or th e highway. So, yeah, I guess I took the highway: I-95 to __be precise, on my late older brother's o ld motorcycle. _

_Mr Alfred on the other hand, had grace a nd style and determination and above all compassion. What did he used to say? 'W hy do we fall, young Master Richard? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again. '_

Grayson's internal revery shattered like the coffee table would have if he hadn' t pushed it two feet farther away from t he couch the night before. Mr. Kent call ed from the kitchen, "Oh, good you're up . You've barely got time for a shower be fore Chloe gets here with coffee."

"Wha—no. I'm going for a run to clear my head." Grayson grabbed his dayrunner fr om the coffee table and checked his watc h and his schedule. Tuesday. First class at 10 o'clock. Okay.

"Suit yourself. Except for the beans, yo ur breakfast may be cold." Kent wasn't s colding him, just stating the facts. "An d Grayson, if you want to talk you've go t to be back in forty-five minutes, beca use Chloe and I are going on patrol for J'onn J'onzz this morning. The Manhunter is up on the Moon for a few hours medit ating. All the suicides and attempted su icides hit him particularly hard, him, b eing a telepath and all."

Grayson grabbed the sheets and blankets he'd slept with the the night before and shoved them into the closet next to the front door. In the bathroom, he put on his gym shorts and sweats and running sh oes. _Hope it didn't snow again last night. To o many blizzards this winter. _He stretched, grabbed his keys and passe d Chloe on his way out.

"Hi, Grayson, good morning!" Chloe's smi le and the warmth of her tone conveyed c heerfulness and optimism. _Wow. An Amazon hangs out with my roommat e. _

"Yeah, hiya, Chloe." _Double wow. My roommate is Superman._

As he ran the streets of Metropolis, Gra yson admired the way the sunrise lit the tops of the tall buildings. _Mr. Kent's pad may not compare to Bruce' s manor, but everything in it had person al meaning. I doubt if very much in the Manor meant anything special to Bruce, b esides the restored old painting of his parents and few mementos from before the ir murders. He only treasured those few items that had survived the fire that bu rned the original place to the ground ar ound the time he first took to the stree ts of Gotham as Batman._

While he ran, Grayson thought about the events of past couple of days, how he'd talked so many people out of throwing th emselves out of windows in tall building s or off the Delaware River Bridge. He r eflected on his brief time with the Tita ns and his longer time as Robin. Without a doubt, he wanted to continue helping people. The thrill of swinging from buil dings and surfing the roofs of buses and elevated trains invigorated him. He lov ed fighting crime. He needed a new secre t identity. His watch told him that he n eeded to turn back and pick up the pace or he wouldn't have time to talk any of this over with Kent.

Somehow even a muggle like him could tel l something majorly bad was coming. Beca use of that sense of impending doom, he' d decided to skip patrol last night and go partying . Heck everyone could tell. Especially the hot chicks at that rave l ast night. Everyone was throwing themsel ves at him. Even guys, which he found di stasteful. Barbara Gordon was still his girl as far as he knew, so last night Gr ayson had danced with all the blondes an d brunettes, but kissed none.

Back at Mr. Kent's apartment with his ru n finished, Grayson downed a pitcher of water and grabbed a mug of steaming coff ee that Chloe had set out for him. "Than k you," he'd told her. She'd flashed a s mile that was two thirds happy, one thir d sad and put her hand over his. She'd a lready suited up for morning patrol: sil ver Amazonium bracelets, golden bustier, star spangled navy skirt, black leather jacket and black leggings.  
"Mr. Kent?" Grayson called.

Chloe pointed up.

"He left already?"

"No. Morning meditations. He goes to the roof when he has company."

Grayson knew he was almost out of time, but he climbed up to the roof Mr. Kent's building. "Sorry to interrupt, but I do need to talk."

Kent whispered "Ah-mein." and pulled his thick terrycloth robe around himself. G rayson wondered whether it was the physi cal chill in the air or the emotional on e that had made Superman don a warm robe . Kent pulled his glasses out of the poc ket in his robe and put them on. He turn ed to face Grayson and smiled. "I'm list ening."

Grayson poured out the whole story about the arguments with Bruce over tactics o n patrol, over his relationship with the Commissioner's daughter (their un-offic ial teammate), over whether or not Bruce trusted him, would ever trust him, woul d ever let him walk point or fight the m ain bad guy. Grayson told Kent that he s till wanted to help people, to fight cri me.

"Grayson, you're growing up. It's normal to struggle with your parent. I remembe r arguing with my Dad over playing footb all my senior year of high school. You'l l make it." Kent stepped over and clappe d Grayson on the shoulder. "Bruce will s ee that. You've just got to get out on y our own for a while and find your own pa th, you own Way. And when you come back Bruce will recognize that you've grown a nd your relationship has changed from ma ster and apprentice to colleagues."

Grayson shivered and Kent handed over hi s robe. Underneath he wore his uniform: crimson cape, boots and trunks, cerulean blue action suit with the crimson and s unrise yellow S-crest.

"Chloe and I have to leave in a few minu tes, but dark times are coming. Soon. I don't know how long they'll last, but I want to tell you of legend from Krypton. My mother was the Keeper of the Archive s of Krypton and occasionally my father' s lab assistant. Or maybe it was the oth er way around. Doesn't matter. She knew all the legends of my homeworld and she recorded many of them for me. I think th ey must have been my bedtime stories in the ship on my way here from Krypton whe n I came as a baby."

Grayson nestled into the warm robe.

"Maybe you need some inspiration that is n't from the Dark Knight." Superman cont inued the story. I've told this one to J ason before. Long ago on Krypton if ever the people were oppressed, any time the re was injustice, or disorder one or two of the people would rise up and take on the mantle of Nightwing and Flamebird. One or the other was always present over throw oppression or right wrongs, cleans e injustice and restore order."

Chloe stepped out onto the roof wearing her Trinity version of the Wonder Woman uniform: black leather jacket over the g olden bustier and black spandex tights u nder the star spangled navy blue skirt a long with the golden lasso and the slive r Amazonium bracelets. Grayson wondered if Hippolyta had ever seen this version of the Wonder Woman outfit.

"We've got to go." Superman smiled at hi s Amazing Amazon as the wind picked up.

"Have a good day in class, Grayson." cal led the Amazon.

_Nightwing! What a name... What adventure s._

The Amazon stepped close to the Man of T omorrow. They gripped each other and flo ated a few feet off the roof. Grayson re alized they were floating away, "Hey! Th anks, Godspeed, you two." The two heroes looked down, smiled and waved. And with a whooooosh, they were gone.

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Perry Wh ite.

In the bullpen of the Daily Planet, Edit or in Chief Perry White passed out the s tory assignments. "Thorpe, you've got th e Mayor, see what's up with the Unions a nd the reconstruction following Luthor's Earthquake."

"On it Chief." Ron shurgged into his tre nch coat but didn't reach for his hat, y et.

"Lane, you've got the Governor. Find out why he's decided not run for re-electio n."

"But!" Lois began to protest that she di dn't want another Superman story, then s he realized the Chief had said the Gover nor. "But doesn't he golf with Bruce Way ne, and the-"

White stood to his full six feet, "Since when did we let the subject's friendshi p with the Planet's majority share holde r determine whether or not we print the story, Lane? We are the Daily Planet."

"Right, Mr. White." Lois looked in her p urse for her cigarettes, but reached for a stick of chewing gum, instead. The Pl anet had been no smoking in doors since Bruce Wayne had bought it. "He also golf s with the President."

"Well then maybe we should..." White rea ched for his humidor and removed a singl e cigar, "..bring in the truth!" The hum idor was still half full and it had been over a year now since the last time he' d bought new cigars. The Chief turned to a stocky reporter, "Gil, you've got the health care follow-up. Get us a human i nterest angle. The President has been ve ry vocal leading the charge against the insurance companies, but we need somethi ng that will inspire people."

"What kind of inspiration did you have i n mind, Chief?" Gil licked the tip of hi s pen and wrote the assignment in his no te pad. "D'you want me to dig into the n umbers on the President's bill and see i f we can inspire more opposition or do y ou want me to find another tear-jerker s tory about a widow or an orphan who was denied a life saving treatment by stingy insurance company?"

"I want the kind of inspiration that wil l sell newspapers and drive traffic on o ur website." Perry sniffed his cigar enj oying the aroma. It was a Romeo y Juliet a from Coasta Rica, best he could buy in Metropolis. He'd light it next Friday a fternoon. He only allowed himself two a month now. White didn't want to develop cancer. He spun around in his chair. Ke nt and Sullivan were on the astronomy st ory, they may not be in for a while. "Wh at are you people waiting for? Christmas ? Get out there and bring me the news!"

"Where's Kent and Sullivan?" asked Jimmy Olsen. "Anyone seen them yet today?"

White frowned and made a shooing motion. Jimmy grabbed his camera case and follo wed Lois. Some on had to capture the loo k on the Governor's face when Ms. Lane a sked one of her famous zingers.

Perry looked out the window of his offic e and admired the high clouds, blue skie s and the end of a late winter sunrise. There was still some snow on the ground. Puxnatawney Phil might not have seen hi s shadow, but spring was still no where in sight. White heard the sound and felt the chill as cold breeze blew through t he bullpen scattering some papers and em pty coffee cups. When he looked up he sa w Kent and Sullivan. Kent was staring ha rd at Sullivan's raincoat and the Editor swore he saw steam rise off it, but the water droplets on the brim of Kent's ha t didn't escape his notice. "There was a pile up on the freeway, Chief." Kent re marked

White glanced over at the Weather Channe l. He saw rain across the state line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "Where, in Trenton?"

The two reporters stood in the Editor's doorway looking a bit sheepish. "Actuall y, in Sao Paulo," answered Chloe. "But t hat wasn't what held us up. It was-"

"Never mind." White motioned them in fro m behind his desk. "I'll read about it w hen you guys get me the next Superman an d Wonder Woman story."

"Chief, there's only one Wonder Woman an d she's Greek," Clark shifted his hands around standing inches away from Chloe a nd not quite knowing where to put them.

"Seriously, Mr. White," said Chloe as sh e buffed a smudge off of her left bracel et with her shirtsleeve, "I may not have a pair of glasses and bad posture to hi de behind a secret identity, but I would n't presume to use that call sign. The Q ueen of the Amazons and her first daught er are the only Amazons to be granted th at title in the last hundred years. You do remember what they did to Atremis whe n she presumed."

"I do indeed." The Editor caressed his c igar and glanced over at one of the fram ed Page Ones on the wall of his office. Somewhere, between 'Man Walks on Moon' a nd 'Berlin Wall Comes Down' was the stor y about an exiled Amazon who'd changed h er name and gone to work for Lex Luthor as a body guard. "But you're not the one who's presuming, Sullivan, I am. And I think Queen Hippolyta and Princess Diana will both forgive me."

White turned back to the cabinet under h is humidor and slid a door to the side. He pulled out some photos and what looke d like a rolled up nautical chart. "Wher e are we on that astronomy business in A ustralia?" The older man walked around t o his conference table and slid some pho tographs of a constellation and spread o ut the chart paper with several sinewave s on it.

Chloe made an ichy face at the printouts and picked up the photographs. "These a re from the Southern Hemisphere. These c onstellations were up when we were down there earlier."

Kent picked up the printouts and studied them for a few moments.

"Those are from a radio telescope array in Australia." White explained. "The ast ronomers can't make heads or tails of it , but if you look-"

Clark closed the door to the Chief's off ice and moved closer to where the Chief and Chloe were huddled around the chart and spoke in conspiratorial tones, "Of c ourse not Mr. White, this kind of effect hasn't been discovered on Earth yet. It 's a supraluminal bow wave." He frowned as he studied the printouts more closely .

Chloe looked up from the photo, "So, wai t a minute, are you saying the distortio n in the Southern Cross isn't just lens imperfections from the telescope?" Chloe looked at White with wide eyes as thoug h she expected him to reveal the hidden meaning of the astronomical readings.

"Don't look at me, Trinity." White smile d at the Amazon and then stared daggers at Clark as he picked up the chart to sc rutinize it. "I'm not the one who spent five years flitting between the stars at Warp Seven. Couldn't build a proper sta rship my left-"

Something clicked in Clark's mind as he studied the chart and looked up at his f riends, "It's a fleet, Chloe. It's a squ adron of capital ships."

White's eyes grew wide, but it was Chloe who found her voice, "What? you mean li ke the Navy?"

Clark set the papers down on the confere nce table, "This can't be good."

"Well, hop to it you two." Perry found h is.

"You know, Chief, I'm still not used to you knowing my secret."

"Go on. I'll cover for you both here, bu t Clark, call your mother and the boy. A nd you, my dear, call your father." Whit e smiled proudly as the pair turned to o pen his door. "And Clark, take the kid f rom California with you."

"Rayner? Chief, he's a photographer. We' re not going to need a photographer wher e we're going."

"No, of course not Rayner." White grouce d. "What sort of buffonery would that be , superheroes taking a photographer on a space mission? Take the one with the Ri ng, the Space Cop."

"Of course. We've already been consulti ng with him."

"Don't forget to send back an article." White still smiled but his eyes betrayed a hint of concern. "And one more thing. I already called your alter egos a pres s conference for this afternoon."


	6. Bye Bye Miss American Pie

Bye Bye Miss American Pie

I make no money and DC, Warners, et al agree not to sue.

These next couple of chapters may remind you just a bit of a film by Christopher Nolan called Memento in that they are not recounted entirely in the sequence the events actually unfolded.

Our Story So Far: 10,000 years ago the Wizards, Mages, Amazons, Atlanteans, and Archangels defeated Darkseid and his host and exiled them all Beyond the Outer Gates in the Apokolipsis Star System 40,000 light distant. More recently Darkseid's minions are active in the Realm of Earth and he is returning to exact his revenge. Superman, Batman and Martian Manhunter have recruited superhuman and supernatural allies in an effort to defeat Darkseid once more.

Time unknown. The Dark Place. Kal-El. Clark Kent. Superman.

I have only two documented weakness: red sunlight and kryptonite, a green, glowing, radioactive, crystalline element formed when the blast wave from its exploding star tore through the world of my birth.

I have fifteen different superpowers: speed, strength, flight, invulnerability, laser vision, telescopic vision, microscopic vision, x-ray vision, freezing breath, great breath, hearing, projecting an image of myself, limited telepathy and perfect control of every muscle in my body. My father named me Kal. My dad named me Clark. A newspaper named me Superman. I have son named Jason.

None of those Super powers were enough to save the world that day, nor my son. Because I have a third, undocumented weakness, one that I discovered that day.

Kryptonian culture was dominated by the sciences and philosophy. We had morality. We had religion. Magic, though, was lost to us in our uncompromising pursuit of science. Maybe we traded one for the other. I had very little knowledge of the supernatural. For all my great studies with my father in the Fortress and my voyaging about the stars in the Ship of the Imagination, for all my great researches and investigations as a reporter, I had never encountered any seriously powerful dark magic, not on the scale at which I would confront it later that day.

There was a strange flickering of the non-light in the nonplace were I currently found myself and I remembered that Harry Dresden had received a cryptic warning early that day from Rashid, the Gate Keeper of the White Council. Harry said that at the time, he'd been hauling a nuclear warhead through the Never-never. I remembered this knowledge, the story Harry had related, but I couldn't actually remember Harry telling the story.

The Gate Keeper had approached, face hidden in the shadow of his hood. The Bat and the two Mossad Commandos froze in mid step as they were changing out positions with the warhead. At first they appeared stock still as though frozen between one moment and the next. Harry looked closer and saw that they were moving slowly. Very. Slow. Ly. He realized that he could still move and perceive at his normal speed and then he saw Rasheed. The Gate Keeper extended his staff toward Dresden. "Fear not to ask for help, from quarters in which you would not normally seek it, yea even from whence you have never sought it." And then everything resumed normal speed. Harry hadn't had a chance to greet the Gatekeeper, thank him or even ask a single question. Had the Gatekeeper even really been there at all? What had he said?

The Bat and the two Commandos exchanged a curious and sidelong glance and then one of the Commandos spoke, "Fear not to ask for help."

The Bat continued, "from quarters in which you would not normally seek it,"

The second Commando finished, "yea, from whence you have never sought it."

The three of them held that side long glance. Harry snapped his fingers. The three of them blinked, shook their heads and then the four of them finished trading positions of carrying the weapon and walking alongside it.

The lighting flickered again.

I saw behind me a vast metal oval. Within it an enormous ship cracking apart.

The Present. Earth. Santa Monica. Kyle Rayner. Green Lantern 2814

It's funny. The starving artist. Rags to riches. Riches to rags and back again. I lived in a fourth floor apartment over a coffee house owned by a middle aged immigrant gentleman from Rumania named Radu Petrovich. Radu came to Los Angeles and started out with next to nothing. Now he owns my apartment building and runs the coffee house in the first floor. He worked, he had vision and he figured out a way to accomplish it. Classic American tale.

And then there's me. I look down at my Ring as it blinks at me. Not that long ago I had a steady job with Feast Magazine. I was their cartoonist-in- residence (and occasional in-house commercial art consultant). And they were the greatest modern American culture magazine ever: Feast was Rolling Stone, Wired, the Economist and Vanity Faire all rolled up into one. It was amazing: bi-monthly even...well twenty issues a year. Every issue I got three to five pages for a cartoon I called City Dwellers. I showed people themselves, their friends and the people whose lives the moved through and those who moved through theirs. I illuminated their understanding of their world and prodded them to seek out their own illumination. And I got paid to do it! Of course I still did the occasional photo shoot for the Daily Planet. I never forgot my Wing Man Richard and his uncle Perry. And I had the Air Force gig, you know all that and fly jets too.

It wasn't that long ago that I had a gallery showing of my own paintings along side greats like Wyland and Pietre. I showed my marine life collection along with their work and that was, it was, wow; words fail me. But then I'm an artist not a writer. So it's okay if I'm at loss for words from time to time. My paintings sold well. Wyland and Pietre naturally sold more than I, each being an established and famous artist in his own right, but that was okay. I could buy my lady Alexa a very good engagement ring and still have enough left to sock away for a rainy day.

And then bottom dropped out of the economy. One day Feast magazine was on top of the world; the next, they were auctioning off the presses. We didn't even get pink slips. And those paintings I sold... Not so sold as I would have liked. At least I got back the ones that weren't paid for. So now I can look up from my drafting table and see a few canvasses of my finished marine life collection next to several partially completed works that I'm calling my celestial collection. And I'm back to putting the finishing touches on new menu designs for Radu in exchange for rent. I already repainted his store, his apartment and some of the other tenants's units.

As I put the final ink on the new menu design, the Ring flashes again. It's been doing that every few minutes since I got out of the shower. Now, it seems insistent. Apparently it took some messages for me while I was getting cleaned up after my work out this morning and it wants me retrieve them or return them. I haven't quite figured out how to play back my messages yet. There's no buttons to press. Maybe there's a manual for this thing in all the hours of conversation, instruction and commentary Superman's father encoded into the Fortress. I hate to call the Man of Steel only because his father Jor-El did some work for the Guardians of the Galaxy, a little commission to design the generation of Rings and Batteries from which mine came. On the other hand, this could be important.

It only took me five minutes to find my phone. He took my call. Superman. Took. My. Ca—so, I should start talking now, "Hello, Sir. This is Green Lantern."

Time unknown. The Dark Place. Kal-El. Clark Kent. Superman.

More flickers. The pain leaks thru. I'm chained hands and feet and there's a baker's dozen red solar lamps bathing me in power draining rays. Almost as bad as Kryptonite. The red sun rays don't actually cause pain or nausea but they do sap my strength, dull my hearing and take away about 125,000 shades of colors humans can't even see from infrared on the long end all the way up past ultraviolet to...x-rays of course. What the red sun rays don't provide in the way of pain, 41 metal spikes driven into various joints, pressure points and chi locations more than make up for with alternating electric currents, blazing heat and burning acid. It's almost like being cooked alive.

They come in and ask me questions to which I have no way of knowing the answers. I think they know it and they just get some kind of twisted pleasure out of asking the questions between shocks of pain. I wonder how...and then I catch myself. I'm on a snow-covered mountain top in Tibet alone. The monastery left far behind. I see the sunlight arcing through high wispy clouds. I can see the tiny rainbows refracting from the ice crystals in those high clouds. Total Recall, did mention that when I was counting off my superpowers before? No? Well, maybe it doesn't count since it's not caused by yellow sunlight, and some humans have it too.

Something tells me these things, these beings that call themselves gods and seem to have more in common with demons, can read my thoughts. Something? Oh, I can feel them probing around in my mind. During the pain. During the questions. They ask me about the defense networks, laser satellites, interplanetary missiles. They also ask me whom I love, whom I hate. But I think about the view of earth at night from my listening post high above Panama. I can look north and see lights from Cozumel to San Diego to Montreal to Boston. I can look south and see lights from Sau Paulo, to Montevideo. It can be quiet if I'm high enough that the air is to thin to carry sound to my ears. I can hear everything, if I drop a bit lower. The lights flicker.

The Present. Earth. Santa Monica. Kyle Rayner. Green Lantern 2814.

"Hello." Superman answered my phone call. I recognized his voice from the night I got the Ring, the Mission to Persia and other times I had worked with him. "It's funny you should call now. We were just talking about you a few minutes ago."

"Really? Look, my Ring is insistently reminding of messages it took from the Guardians, but I haven't figured out how to operate the voice mail yet. Did you father hide the tech manual for this thing in all his hours of commentary and instruction up in your Fortress?"

Superman whispered, "Ask him yourself. I put you on the biometric access up there, remember?"

Kyle replied, "Are you serious, I can go up there without you?"

"Yes. Completely." He's still whispering.

Kyle asked, "Why are you whispering?"

There's some commotion on the far end of the call. "We'll meet up there in two hours." Superman says. "I've got some calls to make and then Wonder Wom—hey!" It sounds like somebody socked him playfully in the shoulder and then they felt the pain. "I mean Trinity and I will be heading there ourselves. Before you ask about the voice mail, ask if the Ring is capable of supraluminal interstellar travel. There are some perplexing readings coming from an array of radio telescopes in Australia-" And then he was gone. Just like that. Faster than light travel between the stars? Radio telescope data? Holy..

I need to talk to Alexa before I go.

The Present. Epsilon Erandi System vicinity of the Hyperspace Gate. Darkseid's Armada. Superman.

It was GL who rescued us. He broke us out of the brig chambers where we'd been confined. He'd tried to destroy the Hyperspace beacons in the whole armada. His ring had found them all. Naturally they were yellow and surrounded by yellow force fields. He tried anything he could think of to damage those beacons, finding some small part of that wasn't yellow and heating or freezing or stretching it until it broke. Six ships out of fifteen broke apart in the Jump Gate. Other ships make it thru. Darkseid and his Lieutenants: Granny Goodness, Desaad, Kalibak made it through with legions of Swarm Troopers. We diminished their numbers. Maybe that loss of six ships, their crews and weapons would tip the odds in our favor during the battle at Earth.

The Present. Earth. Santa Monica. Kyle Rayner. Green Lantern 2814

Alexandra DeWitt, my girlfriend, should be stopping in Radu's for her morning coffee soon. I glance outside at the sunrise. What time is it? I swivel around on the high stool I use at the slanted art/drafting table I use for work. Before I see my clock, the Ring whispers the time. I throw a blazer on with my t-shirt and jeans, slide my feet into my wave shoes and grab a book to head downstairs.

I nod to Rachel the very pale, purple-haired, goth barista as I step through the door to Radu's first floor coffeehouse. While waiting in line, I read a few pages of Simon R. Green's latest Nightside novel. The Ring constantly whispered to me all kinds of information about everyone and everything around me. It's telling me the skin conductivity, pupil dilation, relative muscle tension, pulse and breathing rates of everyone in the shop. It's reading out the engine performance, fuel status, mass, speed and direction of every car, truck and buss passing by outside. It's detailing the current flowing in every electrical circuit and plumbing conduit in the shop. I know that all of this information would be useful in a fight or tactical interview but it's overload getting it like that.

_Look. _I think at the Ring. _I get why you're feeding me all this info, you know it will help me in tactical situations and I've got to be adjust to processing it, but give it to me in an annotated visual overlay, like the heads-up display in my F-15E fighter jet._ I bring the image of the tactical HUD up in my mind and think it at the ring. The whispering stops and now every person, vehicle – even the places in the walls, floor and ceiling where the plumbing and electrical conduits run- is marked with little green glowing icons and data marks. I notice a message icon in the top left of my visual field. I focused on it and the ring displayed my messages in my awareness. I told it they'd keep a few minutes more, besides what had the Apokolipsis system – 1900 sectors and forty thousand lightyears away – to do with me?

When I look at someone in the shop or at a car outside, I'm just aware of a torrent of data about them. I tell the Ring to simplify the data set for me since I don't know how to use all of what it's giving me especially all the details about vital signs of the people. I tell it which data to give me and ask it to teach me how you interpret the rest when I'm not waiting for my girl and trying to read.

I feel a poke in my side. I look around, it's Alexa, dressed for work with her camera bag slung over her shoulder. I tell the ring to bin the data flow unless there's a threat. I take her hand and pull her to me. Just as I'm wrapping my arms around her contentedly, the person in line behind me taps me on the shoulder. I look up and see that the line has moved.

Shortly, we had our coffees and we sat in a corner table for two where I have a good view of the store, not that I need it. The Ring could show me everything I'd need to know and more from anywhere. We held hands easily and talked of what we have coming up that day. She had the Mayor's weekly press briefing and then she'd get some photos of the LA Dodgers for the LA Times' Sports section. I told her that I might have to go to Australia for the Planet. We switched subjects to my painting and she told me she's sorry about the sales that didn't go through and she doesn't mind eating rice and beans with me for a while if that's what it takes. She understood that we'd have to wait on the ring (the silver one with a diamond in it) for a while; she's in this with me for the long haul. I smile and kiss her hand. I tell her that I'm make progress on the celestial collection. And then she stops and stares at me. "None of this is what's eating you is it."

No. It isn't. I can't get past Superman telling me to find out if my Ring is capable of supraluminal interstellar travel. Of course it is. How else am I going to get to OA for training? How else am I supposed to patrol my Sector? It came with a battery; not a Starship. But if Superman needs me to help him get offworld fast, if he's bringing Trinity on the Mission, it can't be just an errand to get some rare chemical from the oceans of Titan or a trip out to the visit planning council at Alpha Centauri, now can it? It's got to tie in with that wave of suicides attempts we all helped prevent earlier and the return of that ancient evil. But I can't tell Alexa any of this. Can I?

On the other hand am I supposed to lie about something this important to the woman I love? Do I think I can be a secret agent and still get home for dinner? Are we going to be like MJ and Peter Parker in the first two Spider-Movies? Honey, there was a disturbance; I'm sorry I'm four days late for our date. Surprise I'm not just popping out to help the firefighters or the SWAT team, I'm going 20,000 light years across the galaxy to another star system. If I want her spend the rest of her life with me, I've got to tell her. Before I go off on this Mission.

"No. It's not. You may need to take the morning off after we talk about this."

The Present. Earth. The Arctic. Superman.

Up at the Fortress, making final preparations for the trip we had almost called off the Mission. A closer analysis of the radio telescopes' and light telescopes' findings had shown us the faster than light bow waves of fifteen ships departing the Apokolypisis System headed not actually for Earth but for the Epsilon Erandi System.

We'd almost breathed a sigh of relief that the Middle Eastern terrorists using an incantation to kill a crowd of people in a market place and all the attempted suicides had been coincidences after all. And then cross checking with the Lantern Corps data base, the one the Rookie had brought to the Koachee Caves the day he got the Ring, had confirmed the worst. From Epsilon Erandi the fleet could use the Hyperspace Jump Gate network to Jump from the Epsilon Erandi to Alpha Centauri en masse and send one or two small ships thru a small backdoor Jump Gate in orbit about Jupiter. Those few ships could set up a receiving port for Apokoliptian Boom Tube technology. Then, from From Alpha Centauri, the rest of the armada could use Boom Tubes to reach Earth almost instantly. The Mission was back on.

Chloe brought forward some interesting facts unearthed from the Amazons' earliest records. Literally. The Queen had vague memories because it was so long ago and the Archivist had gone back and dug up the clay tablets for Cassiopeia (Chloe's Amazon name). What they found was that the Amazons had found a way to kill several birds with a single stone and hold off a war of annihilation between the Archangels and High Father & the New Gods of New Genesis. Seeing they were outmatched, High Father's forces on New Genesis agreed to enforce Darkseid's exile in the nearby Apokolipsis system. But what happened that High Father's forces allowed Darkseid out?

Later, GL had handed me a lapel pin. "Thanks, but no. I don't do jewelry in Uniform."

"Do you know what this is?" The Lantern asked, almost incredulous that Superman would refuse it.

I answered flatly, "A lantern shaped lapel pin."

"No. It's a Lantern Corps Reserve Charge." the Rookie waited a moment for recognition to dawn in my face. I remembered finding Chloe after the battle with the Bizarro that started in New York. She'd been pinned to the asphalt of Route Nine in rural Lowell County Kansas, not far from the Koachee Caves. From the air she looked like an insect pinned to a display chart, the golden wings and helmet of her Amazon battle armor askew. But she'd been alive; battered, bruised and bleeding from cuts and scrapes, but otherwise unharmed. She'd had one of those little lanterns pinned to the collar of the tunic she wore beneath the armor. And she'd said, _"Green Lantern Express. Don't leave home without it." _I was so relieved at seeing her alive that I dismissed the notion. Now I understood. But I still didn't want it. I'm Superman. I don't need a talisman. I'm invulnerable. "No thanks. Keep it. Give it Batman. He's the one who really needs one of those."

"Brah," the Los Angeles native gestured inclusively, "we're about to go out into space. Can you breathe hard vacuum?"

"This black Uniform is my space travel suit." I answered, explaining in simple terms the advanced technology of my native Krypton. "It forms a clear polymer helmet and recycles my exhaled breath and sweat."

"Cool." He thought for a moment and tried another tack. "What happens when you've been away from yellow sunlight for days? Are you still invulnerable, then?"

I reconsidered. While we'd analyzed the radio telescope and light telescope data, he'd said that his Ring could get us to a rendez-vous with the battle fleet in about half a day. But what if it was a long battle? What if I got overwhelmed and captured? I tucked the Reserve Charge into my belt. "Okay, guys what else do we have to do, Perry White set up a farewell press conference for us soon. We don't want to be late for it."

The Fortress AI spoke up, "Respecting the conference of the press to which your friend refers, Kal-El, I have information."

"Go ahead."

The AI continued. "The Terrestrial news services are reporting that the President will host News Conference called, 'A Farewell to Heroes' at 1500 hrs Eastern Time on Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC."

I observed, "That's that same time Perry was going to have us on the steps of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis."

Chloe chimed in, "I'll call the Martian, J'onn, so he can put the word out to the Capes."

The Rookie spoke up, "Yeah, guys, I'd better make a couple of calls, too." He stepped off the Central Dias and floated down to a lower level."

Another flickering of the nonlight and I was back in a dark cell with a small, barred porthole. Pale light fell through it, slicing the room into sections. Those where I could see and those where I couldn't. The thick darkness in the room seemed to devour the light, except for a narrow swath that fell partially across me. I was pinned to the wall again, but only in the sense of sitting on the floor slumped against the wall and having my wrists and feet unable to move more than a few centimetres along the surface. No physical restraints held me in place. I felt tired, but not so tired that I should have been unable to move.

And then an unbearable loneliness and foreboding overtook me. I was the only one. I was not just the last survivor of Krypton, I was the last survivor of the entire universe. I had never known another living soul in all my days. None of my memories were real. I had concocted them all in fantasy. There was only this room. Only this room with walls that sucked up the light. And it was all coming to an end very soon. The floor and the walls had drained the color out of my cerulean blue Uniform and my precious crimson boots. Even the goldenrod had leached out of the crest on my chest...I could feel my life draining away.

The Present. Earth. Santa Monica. Kyle Rayner.

I left some cash under the napkin holder on the table and brought our mugs back to the counter. I gave Radu a two fingered salute as Alexa and I walked out the front door. As we passed through the door the Ring went back into heads-up display mode. I hadn't told it to do that, but I figured it would be helpful to have all of that information at my finger tips if I was going to find a way to tell her, about my latest assignment for my new part-time job.

Traffic directly out the door was stopped for the light at the corner, a few meters to the right from where we stood. I walked over to the newspaper machine and glanced at the photo, "One of yours?" I asked.

"Look if you've got something to say, let's talk about it. I've got the Mayor's press briefing first thing, and the longer we wait the more the traffic is stacking up on the freeway."

Where's an out of control airplane, or a falling meteor, or a truck losing it's breaks when you need one? And then I saw the icons up the street two streets. Traffic was flowing in the cross-street and a bicycle messenger was zipping down the bike lane against the flow of traffic on the other side of the road. He was breathing hard, listening to music and texting while riding. The traffic lights wouldn't cycle before he crossed the street at the pace he was going. "Just a sec, okay?"

There was my situation, the biker and traffic. Now how could I rectify it and show Alexa without, making a dramatic scene that would distract everyone and create more problems than it solved? "Do you see the bicycle messenger on the far side of the street?"

"Oh my gosh, yes!" Her eyes grew wide and she whipped her camera out of its case. "He's barreling toward the cross traffic completely oblivious!"

"Exactly."

"I can't watch." She began snapping off pictures rapidly anyway. "He's going to die!"

I raised my hand and the Ring glinted in the sun. The cyclist glowed green and disappeared. "Now look across the flow of traffic"

"What the heck?" Alexa looked up from her camera, astonished. She kept it level and aimed at the last spot where she'd been shooting pictures. "Where did he go?"

Safely out of the flow of cross traffic, on the far side of the intersection a green glowing blob appeared and the cyclist zipped out of it, continuing on his merry way, apparently oblivious that he'd just been teleported about fifty meters up the road. My girlfriend snapped off a couple of pictures of the green glow, the cyclist appearing out of it and riding safely up the street.

She lowered the camera. "Wait a minute." Turning back to me she asked, "What just happened? There was a biker zipping up the street about to hit a produce truck, and then he was on the other side of the cross street. No one's yelling or staring."

"Except for you, Honey."

"How did you know that would happen?" Alex a stepped closer to me and took my hand in hers for comfort in the face of the very strange and incredible. "How did it happen?"

"Let's walk over to the beach." It was only a few blocks away. Fortunately I didn't have a view of it from my apartment window, or it would be way out of my price range. On the other hand, the roof, had a fine view...

We walked to the traffic signal, waited for the crosswalk and crossed with the light. In the bright morning sun, Alexa stewed in her own juices. "That was so strange, and how did you know?"

I held the Ring up for her to look at. I let it's glow brighten, at least for her. "I made it happen. I teleported that bicycle messenger across the street to safety."

"How?"

We walked down the sidewalk. A light breeze blew. Traffic was slowing down on our side of the street and flowing on the opposite side. People leaned out of windows to water plants or shake out table cloths and then one step later we were on the beach almost in the surf. "Just like that." I noticed the green glow, but only because I was looking for it.

"You're serious."

"Yeah, more than somewhat." Moving things and energy around was easier for me than forming constructs. Maybe you wouldn't think so since I'm an artist, but I think of all the details, I can and can't remember and sometimes I cant hold the construct together for the distraction of not knowing exactly what it should be like in every detail.

I palmed my phone and held it up for her to see. I looked at it and a pointed with my other hand. Then I tossed it into the air. It glowed and held in place about six inches above our heads. I lowered it gently until it was just over our heads. I spun it slowly, not quite as fast as a Swiss movement second hand goes smoothly around a watch. Then I formed a glowing, green, miniature F-15E, not much bigger than the phone, out of Ring energy. I knew every detail of that particular object. I made it spin with the same rotation as the phone. When it's nose pointed directly toward the phone, I changed both of their rotations so that the phone spun about its own vertical center line and the construct of the fighter jet rotated about it.

Alexa reached out to the F-15. I set it in her hand and she grasped it. "It feels cold, but solid, much heavier than a plastic model would be."

I pumped a bit more energy into it and it warmed to her touch.

"So you can teleport and make things appear out of thin air now? Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?" She seemed on the verge of freaking out.

"Alex. Listen to me." I plucked my phone out of the air with a hand and let the F-15 dissolve into mist and blow away with a gust of breeze. "When that object struck the ocean during my training exercise last month, I flew out to it, providing security while a Coast Guard cutter sailed out. It wasn't a meteor or an alien space craft. It was a Apollo Return module from the early 1970s and Air Force Colonel Hal Jordan was its pilot."

My girlfriend look thoughtful for a moment and then said, "I thought he was the Astronaut who died on the Mission that put Skylab in orbit."

"I thought so." I nodded in agreement, "We all did." The tide had moved up the beach and the surf was no almost up to where we were talking. As I drifted into a reverie, I slipped off my shoes and let the water wash over my feet. "Hal was a former hero of mine along with Neil Armstrong and John Young. After the Coast Guard was sure everything was secure, weird but secure, they released me. I flew back to base.

"Colonel Jordan hadn't died that day up on orbit nearly 40 years ago. He'd been selected to receive the Ring of a Green Lantern Interstellar Corps Officer and responsibility to patrol a Sector of the Galaxy. Turns out he was dying, that day when he splashed down, almost 40 years late. Of illness. Apparently he knew Major General Sellars, our Base Commanding General out at Edwards. He contacted General Sellars using the radio in his return module and asked him for the best man he had on duty that day. The General sent me. Jordan wanted to see his old flame Carole Ferris before he passed. And he wanted to pass his Ring to someone courageous and honorable."

"And what? He chose you?" Alex looked incredulous.

"Not exactly. He held out his Ring hand with all five fingers and thumb extended, the Ring glowed and as its green glow enveloped me I felt like whole body, mind and soul turned inside out. Colonel Jordan said, 'You will have to do.' Then he gave me the Ring and its battery and asked to see Carole.

"So what you're some kind of Space Cop now?" she asked.

"Yeah." I answered, smiling, a little sheepish.

Alexa looked numb, "Have you gone out there yet?"

I kept smiling, now no longer sheepish, now sincerely recalling fond memories, "Just up into orbit, to see the Earth from space, and up to the Moon to see Neil Armstrong's foot prints."

"Oh."

"They're not there. The blast of the engine from the Ascent Module on the LEM scattered the moondust back over the footprints and knocked down the American Flag when it boosted Neil and Buzz Aldrin back up to meet Michael Collins in the Command Module for the return trip to earth. The base of the Lunar Excursion Module is still up there. It's all scorched. The batteries are dead in the Lunar Rovers."

"Oh. This is all a little much."

"What, finding out that Neil Armstrong's footprints blew away in the blast of his Ascent Module?"

"No finding out that you're fraking a Green Lantern, a Space Cop." She paused, but the look in her eyes told me she had more to say. Alexa continued, resignedly, "I suppose that business with the radio telescopes in Australia isn't going to be your story afterall. Is it? The _LA Times_ is sending Wallace. He's going to get a local photographer."

"Well, I'll be investigating it out there." I gestured toward the heavens.

"Why doesn't Superman go? Or Wonder Woman? Or the Titans?"

"I'm taking them with me. Superman and Trinity anyway."

"Kyle," She stepped closer to me, her shoes in one hand, surf running over her feet now, too. She extended a hand to me cheek. "I love you." I knew that she did, but her touch now, the look in her eyes now was not the touch or the look of a lover. "I do. But I don't quite know what to make of you being in the Green Lantern Corps now. I can handle the Air Force Reserve. It takes you away from one weekend a month and three or four months a year. I can handle that. I think our kids will be able to handle that. It's a manageable commitment. I could handle you going back in the Air Force full time. We still have a few Air Bases in nice places around the world, that I wouldn't mind seeing. I wouldn't mind my kids, our kids growing up with some time overseas."

I reached out to her, but she stiffened at my touch, "But I don't know if I can handle you cruising off across that stars to investigate crimes and capture villains and pirates." She looked down at my hand as though some foreign object had floated down out of the sky and come to rest on her collar bone. "No don't hug me. Go. Do what you've got to do. I'll be here when you get back. We'll have to push back the engagement though. To see how this works. I just don't know."

"Okay, Alexa." I said Uniform under my breath and a green circle spread out from my ring encircling my wrist. It moved up my arm and then at my shoulder it spread down my side all the way to my foot. It moved across my body from right to left and disappeared when it reached the tip of the middle finger on my left hand. As the glowing green circle moved across me it transformed my blazer, jeans and shoes into my green lantern uniform: A black flight pressure suit with white gloves and green boots. From the center of my chest up to the shoulders and back down to the center of my back were green triangles. I had an empty white circle over my left pectoral muscle. I guess that's where the Lantern symbol will go after I'm trained. "I love you."

Then I leaped into the sky. I can't jump but about ten inches, so I used my ring to boost that to about ten meters. I hovered there for a moment, looking down toward Alexa, but she just stared out at the horizon. She didn't look back up at me. I just flew north to the meeting with Superman and Wonder Woman at the Fortress.

The Present. Space. Epsilon Erandi system, near the Hyperspace Gate. Superman

The lights flicker and I'm outside one of the ships watching it crack apart as the Jump Gate energizes. I can feel the Jump Gate tearing at my body. Since I'm not in a ship with a Jump Beacon, It's trying to rip me apart and scatter my atoms across a thousand light years of interstellar space. That's what the children's jump-roping tunes said on Krypton when my father was a young lad. Somehow I find it difficult to see in the mind's eye my white haired distinguished, noble, wise father ever as a child. He recounted hours of tales of his childhood for me in the tapes. He had Total Recall, too. I think all Kryptonians did.

A flicker of light, visual echoes from the Jump Gate. I remember phoning ahead for Jason's lasagne at lunch the day I left Earth with Green Lantern and Trinity to fight Darkseid in space. I took my son out of school for an hour and flew to Sicily. I knew he'd want lasagne. I had lentil soup and vegetarian musaka with beef and lamb gyro. He loves to fly with me. He can't defy gravity on his own yet, but when we fly, he'll stretch out his arms and we'll hold on with just our fingers. He holds his breath up at the edge of space. We look up and see the empty darkness. Looking out, we see blue sky, down the seas and grass lands of earth, and at the edge between sky and space, a rainbow. It's an absolutely magnificent view. That view, that moment with my son is the last thing my mind holds onto as the incredible forces at work within the Jump Gate tear open a hole in the Universe allowing ships to cross from real space into hyperspace. Hyperspace Beacons within those ships have to lock onto the destination Gate. Without Beacons, six of Darkseid's ships are torn apart by the Jump Gate. What chance do we have, three people tossed out an airlock in the Command Ship as it flies into the Epsilon Erandi Gate? Three people floating in the void, still carrying the momentum from the Command Ship, three people spaced while transiting the Jump Gate. I feel the forces tearing me apart as I remembered my son and the view above Earth.

Time unknown. Space. Green Lantern 2814 and Trinity.

Green Lantern's eyes opened and he sucked in a deep breath. At least he was in tact. Though as he checked himself, he found his Uniform a little worse for wear. He focused his will and the Uniform repaired itself.

"Tactical display," he said to the Ring. No additional information flooded into his awareness. No floating hyperlinks of data hovered anywhere. There should be targets. There should be pickets and flitters. There should at least be shields and stealth fields. He'd been fighting fifteen capital ships. Where were shields and comm lasers and sensor fields and scanner beams? There should be enough electromagnetic energy pulsing through the aether out her to ...Where were the ships? Where's the Jump Gate. Where's the star? Rayner looked all around, 360 degrees plus above and below. He checked the gravitational gradient reading in his Tactical. It showed flat. There should be a nice big arrow pointing clearly down system at the star Epsilon Erandi. But there wasn't. What he found as he looked with his eyes and all the Rings sensors, was nothing and a whole lot of it. Except for his friends. Chloe the Amazon, in battle-scarred Amazon armor, and Superman, in his capeless, black space travel uniform, they both floated close by in all that vast sea of emptiness.

Kyle glanced over at Chloe and saw that she was pulling herself together much as he had just done. Superman though was just floating there. Inert. Exactly the same way that bricks don't, back on Earth.

The Lantern Recruit pressed his will thru the Ring. While it began to workout where they were, he and his two friends drew closer together.

"Lantern, we were just in the middle of a huge battle. Where is everything?"

"Somewhere else." Rayner checked Superman's pulse. It seemed a little slow, but his Ring assured him it was normal for a Kryptonian.

"What do you mean somewhere else? Where are we?"

Kyle could see Kal-El's chest rising and falling with each breath. Clearly he was alive. "I'm working on that."

"What do you mean you're working on. You're just standing there looking thoughtful."

"I've got the Ring working out where we are. I'm trying to do something I can actually affect. I'm checking on my friends here."

"You haven't checked me."

"You're clearly fine." The Rookie looked across at Trinity, then back down at Superman. He whacked the Son of Krypton in the knee. He kicked. Before lifting one of the Kryptonian's eyelids, the earthman noticed that the Man of Steel's eyes were darting around rapidly as though he were dreaming in REM sleep. Then he shown a light into each eye. The pupils contracted. Involuntary responses where fine, pulse and breathing were fine. Physically, he apparently was fine, but his mind was somewhere else. "Dammit! Superman snap out of it!"

"I know what he needs," the Amazon spoke with a mischievous glint in her eye, "true love's kiss."


	7. Sleeping Handsom

I make no money and they agree not to sue.

This chapter is little bit more straightforward than the last. Not using multiple first persons this time, but still told in sequence only from a "certain point of view"

Sleeping Handsome

The Present. Earth. Washington, DC. Trinity/Chloe Sullivan.

"Pssst. Hey, Chloe." Superman said under his breath. In his customary red and blue suit, he stood with Trinity and Green Lantern behind and to the right of the President of the United States on a stage constructed before an aircraft hanger, on the flight line at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC. "Chloe, take a deep breath, it will help with the frustration."

For her part Chloe Sullivan, Cassiopeia to her Amazon sisters and Trinity to the public at large, was in deed quite frustrated. She stood there in her full Amazon battle armor, with golden wings on her shoulders, an eagle helmet under her arm, the Damocles Sword on one hip a golden lasso of infinite length on the other, a black leather jacket over a red and gold bustier, a Japanese katana on her back and chain mail leggings over black spandex and under a blue white star spangled skirt. On the stage behind the President with her partner and their friend she barely contained her seething. "I will not be a pawn to his political grandstanding!" She stage whispered.

"Just because you're guided by Jeffersonian ideals like free enterprise and individual liberty and you're chafing at his very words doesn't make it okay for -"

"Well, how did you know what I'm feeling anyway?" Trinity glanced subtly over at Superman.

"Super hearing." The Man of Steel responded, still standing relaxed and ready; he continued without pausing for breath, "What are you going to do—draw your sword, and make him let us say what we wanted to say?"

"Super hearing?" Chloe sounded incredulous

"Your pulse is up and you're grinding your teeth. I can hear that. Since about halfway through the eighth grade, it's what you've done when you're frustrated."

The Amazon warrior touched the hilt of the Damocles Sword with her right pinky. She had her helmet in her right hand leaving her left hand free... "Maybe..."

"Do you see all the Secret Service agents around us?" Green Lantern whispered. He didn't need super hearing to follow what was going on between the Son of Krypton and the youngest Amazon. The Ring was giving him a blow by blow account, just leaving out the words.

"Yes." She replied.

"Can you actually do the whole bullets and bracelets thing?" the Space Cop continued. "See, I'm not entirely clear on the extent of your powers, and before we go off into space to fight a supernatural evil that has even the White Council of Wizards nervous-"

"Okay." She took a deep breath.

"Good. Now another." Superman spoke in a calm and measured tone, "Patience my dear. Another way will present itself."

Chloe looked around. The crowd was cheering. Clark was standing there calmly. Green Lantern stood at perfect, crisp parade rest, his black and green Uniform resembling an Air Force dress uniform more than fighter pilot's pressure suit. The Amazon started to shift her helmet to the other side so that she could draw her Damocles Sword, but before she did she heard Green Lantern call in a loud and firm voice.

CRACK! The Amazon felt it more than she heard the huge bolt of dark lightening and for just a moment whole world went slant wise with a pink sky and black clouds to top it all off.

Time unknown. Location unknown. Trinity.

"Superman! Snap out of it, come back to us." Green Lantern called in a loud firm voice.

Trinity looked around and saw nothing. No stage. No flight line. No Genesis Orbiter. No Andrews Air Base. She saw nothing and lots of it. No sky. No sun. Except for a faint green force bubble around the three of them, there was just empty space in every direction as far as her eye could see. "Where. Are we?"

"I already told you that I'm working on that." Green Lantern answered. His Uniform was back to its usual pressure suit look.

"We were just at Andrews Airbase." Chloe just hovered there for a moment, then she began checking her uniform and kit: most of it was there, but one of her wing shaped shields was missing, her helmet was cracked, her left gauntlet was scorched and her left wrist burned slightly. "The President was about to give us the Genesis Shuttle." The Director of NASA had been on the video screen and the President had talked of keeping promises...

"Yeah, and I stopped him because we didn't have time to wait for the Orbiter to be mounted on its 777 lift vehicle and fueled. We had to be boosting to orbit in less than a half hour." Green Lantern looked over his shoulder at Chloe. "That was then. Now, we just woke up here. Where ever here isn't" because there's nothing here except for us. Everything else is somewhere else. "Before that we were thrown out the airlock of the godling's Command Ship as it was transiting the Epsilon Erandi Jump Gate."

"Are you sure, because the last thing I remember is that you teleported Pastor Lindquist from Smallville, Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons from Themyscaria, Rabbi Hanoch from Los Angeles..."

"Uh-huh. I also brought the Abbot of a Buddhist monastery in Nepal where Superman studied." He turned back to Superman. The Kryptonian's body seemed to be functioning normally: pulse, breathing, reflexes, pupils dilated in light. But he wasn't responsive to sound. Hmmmm. "Yeah that was after we stepped off to the side of the stage out of sight of the TV cameras and gave our statements to Lois Lane of the Daily Planet introducing the world to a team of heroes who would watch over them and before I flew us to the Epsilon Erandi system."

"Where we put up a good fight, but all of us got captured and then you came and broke me out of my cell. I saw them take your ring. How did you work that out?" Chloe was counting events off as they returned to her mind.

"Trade secret." Green Lantern smiled.

"And then we got flushed out of an airlock as the Command Ship of the attack fleet was transiting the Epsilon Jump Gate." Chloe floated over where Green Lantern hovered over Superman. "So where is everything? The fleet. The Gate. The star?"

"Somewhere else."

Suddenly the solution was clear to Trinity. "He needs a kiss."

"What do you mean a kiss?" GL took a step away from the Amazon.

The focus changed in here eyes, a Chloe's mind wandered a bit from Green Lantern as she said, "I mean a Kiss. Long and slow with lots of tongue."

"You're kidding." The rookie's face twisted up in disgust. "I'm not going to do that."

"Move over cowboy." Chloe pushed past GL and elbowed him gently out of the way. In zero g she saw him just float away until his Ring flared a smoldering green and he slowed him to a stop. Chloe continued, "I most certainly didn't say for you to kiss him. He needs true love's kiss."

"What is this a fairy tale now?" GL smiled at thought. Maybe there was a trail of bread crumbs out here that would lead them home.

"Hey we just went on a long journey to fight a vastly evil minor deity. I'd say we're definitely in fairy tale country." Chloe remarked.

The Lantern considered for a moment. "No forest. We're up in the stars. This is mythological territory."

"Either way, it's true love's kiss, now step aside." She floated over and took Superman in her arms.

"I'll just be over here." Green Lantern flew a few yards away and formed a big set of green ear protectors around his head, the kind that air plane wranglers and flight crews wear on the tarmac around really loud jet engines.

Chloe made a turning sign with her hand, and smiled meekly.

"No. I'm not turning my back on you. You might both disappear."

Seeing a frown crease the Amazon's features, Green Lantern turned and blinked. During the blink, Kyle saw a blinding light and felt jostled around like he was standing in his loft during an earthquake back in Los Angeles.

The present. Space. Green Lantern 2814/Kyle Rayner

He floated next to an asteroid. Epsilon Erandi was a modest light way off in the distance. He could see the Jump Gate not too far off and the attack fleet moving into position to begin Jumping through. A glance over the rookie's shoulder showed no Trinity and no Superman, but he could make out the Epsilon system's gas giant off in the distance.

With the godling's attack fleet moving into position, it was clearly time to go bust his friends out of the brig of the Command Ship. Hadn't he just been with Superman and Chloe in the middle of millions of miles of void? No matter. His concentration had clearly wavered and no doubt the energy duplicate he'd made of himself had dissipated. He had to hurry. If his friends weren't in immediate jeopardy of their very lives already, they would be as soon as who ever was in charge of the brig noticed the Green Lantern shaped hole in his cell.

But before he rushed off into battle half blind with no thought or plan, Kyle Rayner paused. "Show me," he said to the Ring. And his field of view suddenly expanded into five dimensions and he could know everything about his environment if he chose to. In front of him he saw the tight beam tactical communication lasers frantically sending the final transmission to set up the Jumps. Wide beam Terra-Watt death rays powered down and stowed themselves. Shields powered up and flitters swooped back into their bays as pickets mated back up with their battleships. Next to him hovered an asteroid the size of a tractor-trailer's cab. In the distance behind him swarms of other asteroids and comets of varying sizes from soccer ball up to Madagascar cut gracefully through the aether guided on the pathways they had plied among the moons and planets of this solar system since God had said "Light Be!" guided only by Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion.

"Ring, get me some of those asteroids, about five hundred and smash the into the ships of this fleet at speed."

**Done. They begin arriving in seven and half minutes.**

"How long until the attack fleet begins its Jumps?"

**Four minutes, forty-seven seconds and counting.**

"Give me a count down display in the lower left corner of my field of view. Stealth me." The rookie flew away from his asteroid and made a smooth curve through all the flitters and pickets and dumped space junk speeding directly for the Command Ship. On the way he reached out through the Ring to the hyperspace beacons that would guide each ship from this Jump Gate to the next one.

**They're yellow.**

"Okay then let's go after the propulsion systems."

Schematics appeared in his mind so bewilderingly complex that he felt lost and wobbled of his graceful perfect arc. "No, wait," a flitter the size of a Volkswagen nearly smashed into him from behind, but his five dimensional vision showed him where it was and when when it would be occupying the same space as him and he rolled over into a dive worthy of the the Thunderbirds. "That didn't work last time."

**What do you mean last time?**

"Try the environmental controls inside these ships. Make it blazing hot and freezing cold. Burst the water pipes and the waste pipes. Fluctuate the gravity fields and magnetic fields, have them rotate randomly. While the fields do that, also multiply and divide them by the first twenty-two prime numbers in no particular order at intervals of forty-five and one hundred twenty seconds."

Smaller ships began to wobble and crash into each other as well as the larger ones. He could hear the shouting on the flight decks, bridges and combat information centers. And then the chaos began to reorganize as another will asserted itself from the center of the Command Ship AND spreading outward. Kyle took the measure of this will and chose to back off.

Reaching the hull of the Command Ship, he formed a cutting tool in his mind and he saw the edges of a circular saw spinning in green glints in front of him. The bulk heads of the ship separated themselves before him. He allowed the compartment he entered to outgas. The fierce wind rushed around him like a hurricane but against his implacable will it separated and flowed around him like he was a human airfoil. Air locks began to seal and he let them. It wouldn't do to be trying to rescue his friends in a vacuum if he could avoid it.

Remembering it's location, Rayner walked thru air tight doors and bulkheads and decks making a bee line for the brig. He found Chloe first and then Superman. He saw them both in his mind's eye. Chloe was restrained in a hideous looking machine. Superman just writhed on the floor of an empty cell in torment. Rayner rammed his will through the Ring like a laser scalpel slicing through machinery as he pealed the layers away from the Amazon.

Her twisted rictus of agony smoothed out into a soft smile and she said, "Clark?" as she opened her eyes.

"No, I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you."

"Aren't you a little small for a stormtrooper?"

"Bring her gear."

"What?" Chloe saw her uniform, armor and weapons appear.

Kyle felt the change in the hum of the deck plates through the soles of his black boots and glanced at the countdown in the corner of his view. Seemed it should have been down to counting just seconds, but instead it showed a few minutes minutes. He guessed that his distraction plan was working. He knew there might be enough seconds on the clock for the Amazon to robe and arm herself, but they still had to retrieve Kal-El and get off the ship.

"Hurry and dress."

She did.

While the Amazon was still affixing her wing shaped shield with swords and helmet yet to be clasped on, the Lantern declared, "We must get Kal. Take my hand. This may seem a little strange."

Chloe quickly hitched on her swords, tucked her helmet under one arm and reached out with the other, clasping her gauntleted hand around his black gloved hand. A green glow spread from the Ring around the Lantern's body and then up Trinity's arm and around her body, too. They began to walk diagonally down through the deck. The Amazon saw the contents of compartments scattered onto bulkheads and decks. All manner of fluids and waste sloshed around everywhere. In ten steps they stood within Kal's cell, on the exterior bulkhead, as though it were the deck.

Trinity knelt next to Superman and began to reach for him tenderly. "Wait." GL said. His face creased with concentration. The Ring glowed. A green haze formed around the Man of Steel. Within the green haze a tangle of black barbed wire and silver razor wire bound Superman from head to toe. The spiked cables went into his skull and spine and major organs.

"Wow," the Amazon leaned back. "Where was all that a second ago?"

"It was all right there, we just couldn't see it." the Lantern glanced at his Ring. "It's some kind of supernatural working, equal parts curse, hex and spell. I can't peel it off, the way I did your machinery."

"No problem. You just keep it lit up and I will cut it all off with the Damocles Sword."

"Good, just be quick about it. This ship will Jump in less than 80 seconds."

Chloe deftly sliced through layers of magical torture, delicately removing each one.

Suddenly the wall cracked open and the void of space reached in and yanked them out into the swirling energies of the Jump Gate.

Time unknown. Location Unknown. Kyle Rayner/ Green Lantern 2814.

And then they were all three back in the true middle of nowhere with only a glowing green translucent sphere around them and dozens of thousands of billions kilometers of inky blackness all around. Other than the Ring, the only lights were a few distant pinpricks of stars.

Kyle breathed hard as beads of sweat formed all over his body. He heard a woman's voice "Aren't you going to turn around and give me some privacy?" Chloe, Cassiopeia, Trinity, Superman's friend and partner.

Kyle took slow deep breaths. "No. I just did that, and got ripped back in time to when I tried to fight the Attack Fleet single-handedly. Forgive me but I don't want to let either of you out of my sight for the present moment."

"Hmmm." The Amazon took Superman's hand in hers and floated down so that they were arranged as though he lay in a sick bed and she stood next to him. "Yeah, I was just back at the President's speech. What did that stout Arab in the western business suit and trainers say to you as we were walking around the side of the stage?"

"Something about Angels" _I am a righteous man._ Kyle had heard him say. _I am traveling for three days from Basrah to be here now, to tell you that I can send with you many Angels. I can send with you many Angels so that you find victory in your mission. _Kyle had looked him in the eyes, had known the man from Basrah meant every word, and had thanked him.

Chloe knelt and caressed Kal for a few moments. "I know you can hear me. I'm not afraid anymore. I know that we're going to make it. I love you, Kal. I love you." And then she kissed Kal. It began as a peck, but she knew that wouldn't break the spell. She locked lips with him and continued the kiss warmly, sweetly, tenderly. Floating in space, it was her choice whether she was kneeling beside him or standing next to him. She extended her legs and entwined them with his. The Amazon's arms wrapped the Kryptonian in a strong, yet tender embrace. She breathed in through her nose and continued kissing him. Her tongue wandered into his mouth.

The Lantern saw Superman's hand move from his side to the Amazon's back, and at this point he turned to give them some privacy.

Kal kissed Trinity back. Taking her in his arms, Superman opened his eyes and looked into Chloe's face. "Hey." He reached up and touched her cheek. "I missed you, Chloe Sullivan In all of time and space you are my best mmmppfff."

She kissed him again. Throwing her arms around him, thrilled that he was back, not wanting hear him call her friend again. She felt his hand in the small of her back.

"It was so terrible. At the end." Superman whispered to Trinity. They just floated there and held each other whispering tinder words.

"Shhh." Trinity whispered back. "I'm here. I'm real. That bad stuff was all in your mind."

At length Green Lantern cleared his throat.

"Now that we're all awake," Trinity looked up from Superman and over at Green Lantern, "we can get back to the question I asked."

"Which one?" the Lantern asked

"Grrr. You know. Where are we?"

"I still don't know that, but...my Ring was able isolate a few others and triangulate. It disturbs me that it only found only a few dozen. It tells me there should be around a 7200 Rings in service at any given time." the Space Cop noticed the Amazon staring daggers at him. He also sensed other Rings, than the Green of Will and Yellow of Fear that he already knew of, "I don't know where we are. And the Ring can't tell me where here is in any meaningful because there's no here, here. But what I do know," he extended his Ring hand, and a huge glowing green arrow pointed the way "is earth is about 14,000 light-years that way."

"Then let's go." said Kal.

"As soon as I re-charge my Ring"

Time unknown. Sol System. Superman.

Green Lantern dropped the three heroes out of Transluminal inside the orbit of Mars. Kyle and Superman studied the sky, in particular the positions of Jupiter and Saturn relative to the inner planets, and then glanced at each other. _Something's wrong_. Kal smiled and basked in the golden sunlight choosing to ignore the problem for the moment. GL's mind went to work on it as he guided the group toward earth. As they zipped past the moon, approaching earth from the night side, Kyle noticed the lack of lights along the coastlines. Normally the lights of major cities shine easily up to orbit.

They zipped over Indian Ocean, across the Persian Gulf and crossed into daylight over the Mediterranean Sea. Over Sicily they stopped and stared across Europe in stunned silence. The coastlines were still there, but the interior where the fields and forests and cities should have been was covered in a single giant Fire Pit. A humongous statue of a humanoid form stood astride the Straights of Gibraltar. It was muscular and wore a tunic with trousers and jackboots. It's face was craggy and filled with menace. It's skin was jagged and apparently it had been carved to look that way.

Superman, Trinity and Green Lantern looked at each other, breath caught in their throats at the utter desolation, then all together, "We're late,"


	8. Future Imperfect

Future Imperfect

The Present. Earth. Metropolis. Jason White.

Jason White rushed excitedly into his uncle's office next to the bullpen. He set his back pack down and plopped down on top of it without even loosening his tie or taking off his school jacket.

_Uncle Perry had the best TV._ And there was only one thing he liked as much as playing the piano or watching his mommy and daddy put the newspaper together every afternoon. That was seeing his father in action, or flying with his father, or..._okay I have a lot of favorite things. Or maybe I just like anything with my parents_. Jason wondered when it would be his turn to right sinking ships or save crashing airplanes, stop bank robbers and foil bad men's plots.

The President was on the TV when Jason looked up at it. The President was talking about how no one else but Jason's father could stop the great Evil that was headed for earth. _Does he mean the asteroid?_

The then lad heard the President mention his Cousin Chloe and the new Space Cop from out in Los Angeles. His father didn't need any help with the asteroid, just time. _It must be something bigger and worse than an asteroid headed for the world._

The news went to a split screen format and showed a photo of Chloe dressed up in her Amazon uniform and listed off some facts about her on one side. Then it switched to the Green Lantern symbol and some facts about the Green Lantern Corps. Jason wondered why they didn't have a picture of Green Lantern's face.

Then Lantern symbol disappeared and second view appeared of the President appeared in its place. This one showed the President from the opposite side. The second camera then panned out to see the crowd. The crowd looked awed. And they were staring up at the sky and pointing. The President stopped talking and looked up, too. His mouth smiled, but not his eyes. The view of the crowd panned up into the sky

_Father!_ Superman's crimson cape billowed behind him in the breeze as lowered down, red boots first. His arms of blue spread wide and gripped Cousin Chloe, all dressed up in her Amazon uniform and she wore the the battle armor, too. _With that helmet and the wing-shaped armor on, she looked like a red and black and gold eagle, but even with her arms spread wide, she couldn't fly._ The news announcer was saying that the last Wonder Woman, and the one before her, could fly. On the other side of his father Green Lantern floated down, his arms spread wide, too. _Green Lantern's black and green uniform looked like the pressure suit Daddy Richard wore in the old photos, the ones with jets and Uncle Kyle_.

The three heroes floated down, waving at the crowd on their way down. They landed on the stage near the President, but not too close. _Green Lantern and Cousin Chloe looked like they wanted to salute but they weren't sure if they should so the din't._ The President walked over and shook their hands and posed for photos with them. Then one of the President's helpers came over and showed Father and Chloe and the Space Cop where to stand.

The President went back to talking and Jason got bored. He didn't like it when the President used such strange words to describe a bus full of kids. _Who calls school kids pupils anymore or talks about public school kids like they were any different from us at the Montessori School. Odd. Even for a grown up. The last President seemed to talk so much more naturally._

Jason walked over to the TV and studied the image of his father. He just looked calm and confident. His gaze moved from the President out to the crowd sometimes. Sometimes he nodded at what the President had to say. Chloe and Green Lantern looked like they were so excited about the crowd and the President and the Mission that they were almost couldn't stand it.

Uncle Perry walked in, "Hiya, Sport," the older man said in his normal booming voice as the door closed. He walked over to his nephew and mussed the lad's hair. He glanced over at the TiVo recorder and saw two red dots. _Good._

Then he sat down in one of the wing chairs beside the large flat screen TV. "Watching your father or the President?"

"My father?" Jason look aghast and slightly confused. "Uncle Perry, you know Daddy Richard went back in the Air Force..."

"Son," Perry smiled, "I mean the one who doesn't need a fighter jet to fly."

"Hey! That's a secret! How did you know?"

Perry White smiled and patted his youngest nephew on the shoulder, "Well, I only figured it out the day of the Metropolis Earthquake, a few weeks ago. He hid in plain sight behind those glasses for a few years, before his trip to Krypton. But when returned, I saw his face up close for the first time on TV the baseball game. Next, he caught the Daily Plant globe as it was falling and about to crush me. Then your mother finally told me about you and the piano on Luthor's boat."

"Oh..."Jason looked up into his Uncle's face. He saw warmth and compassion there. His own face showed a mixture of excitement and concern. "He's going away again. He told me so at lunch."

_At least he got that right this time._ "What about your mom and your Grandma Martha? Did he tell them?"

"He said he was stopping off to see each of them before he went up to the Fortress to plan his Mission with my Cousin and the Space Cop." Jason replied confidently, beaming that his father was taking time to be considerate of the important people in his life.

"Did he tell you anything else?" the veteran newsman asked.

"He told me he loved me and he said that my Uncle Bruce and my Aunt Diana and my Uncle J'onn and Mr Steel would be watching out for me while he was gone."

"Hmm, he did, eh?" Perry smiled. This kid was the easiest interview ever. But then innocent children always were.

Jason scrunched up his face like he was confused. "I get why Aunt Diana and Uncle J'onn and Mr Steel would watch out for me. Aunt Diana used to be Wonder Woman and Uncle J'onn and Mr Steel are Superheroes." He paused like he was making one last try at puzzling something out for himself before asking. "But why would Uncle Bruce watch out for me? He has a big house and he owns this newspaper, but why would he watch out for me? Father takes me over there to play with Uncle Bruce's daughter Helena sometimes and to visit with Mr Dick and Miss Barbara and Mr Alfred. I don't get it. Is Uncle Bruce secretly the Green Arrow or the Atom or something?"

"No, son. Mr Wayne is definitely not Green Arrow." The newsman chuckled. The thought of Mr Wayne putting on a Robin Hood costume and a Lone Ranger mask to battle street thugs and robbers as a vigilante was quite amusing. _On the other hand, the monastery of the legendary ninja master R'as al Guhl wasn't farm from where Alfred Pennyworth had recovered Mr. Wayne in Asia. So, maybe Mr. Wayne actually did have another side the world seldom saw, or didn't associate with the Prince of Gotham when it did._

There was a knock at the door to the Editor-in-Chief's office. "Come in." Perry boomed. The door opened and Jason's mother walked in.

"Mommy!" Jason leaped up off his back pack and rushed over to hug his mother. Lois Lane stumbled backward and caught herself on the doorframe. "Whoa, Mom. Are you okay?"

"Sure, Munchkin. Mommy just stumbled in her high heels is all." Lois Lane squatted to hug her son. "Grab your book bag. We need to let your Uncle Perry make his afternoon conference call as soon as the President is done speaking."

Jason looked up at the TV. "Hey!" The lad turned to his uncle, "Where's Superman and Trinity and GL?" Then he looked up at his mother, "They were just there next to the President, Mommy."

Perry answered. "Oh, while you and I were talking, Green Lantern said something about how they had to leave soon and couldn't wait for the Genesis Orbiter to be fueled and mounted on the big jet. They just walked off stage a moment ago to give their exclusive to our very own Ron Thorpe and Jimmy Olsen."

"Yea us! We rock!" declared Jason as he shouldered his back pack. "Don't we rock, Mom?" He waved to his uncle on the way out of the office.

"So, what happened at school today?" Lois asked. "How was the trip to the Museum of Natural History?"

"It was great! We saw dinosaur skeletons and there was another class of kids from out of town there. I made two new friends today. Billy Batson and his sister Mary. Did you know that brothers and sisters could be twins? I din't know that, 'till today; 'till I met Billy and Mary."

The Future. Earth. Mediterranean Sea. Superman, Trinity & Green Lantern

Superman, Trinity and Green Lantern hovered 400 miles high in a green energy bubble over the Mediterranean Sea in and looked north over Europe. A vast monstrosity of fire pit stretched from the Italian Alps all the way north to just below the Danish Peninsula and from the coast of France in the west to the River Elbe in the East. Most of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, all of Luxembourg and Switzerland, norther Italy and parts of Austria and Czech Republic just didn't exist any more. The three heroes looked at each other, breath caught in their throats at the utter desolation, then said in unison, "We're late"

Superman looked east with telescopic vision and saw Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and parts of Jordan reduced to a fused glass crater and radioactive rubble. In the west, Chloe could see the new Colossus standing astride the entire straits of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco: A humongous statue of a humanoid form, muscular, wearing a tunic with trousers and jackboots. It's face was craggy and filled with menace. It's skin was jagged and apparently it had been carved to look that way. "When are we?" asked Trinity.

Green Lantern replied, "I'm working on that." With Ring energy he'd formed a telescope on the spaceward side of the bubble. With the telescope, he was sighting on known stars, identifying them by their spectrum rather than by position. After sighting in on five, he reformed the telescope into a computer and fed in the coordinates of the stars today and from where the each had been the last time he'd sighted them in college. After a little while of looking at the spinning hour glass... "We're about fifteen years late, give or take a few months.."

"Oh God! Jason... I have to find my son." Superman pushed through the gel-like substance of the bubble, which then reformed behind him, leaving Chloe and Kyle warm and breathing.

"Clar—No! Superman wait!" Trinity lunged in the direction Superman flew. She turned back to GL, "Come on! We have to go after him"

_Ring, _Kyle asked_, can you communicate with Superman via bone conduction through the Reserve Charge over his collar bone?_

**Yes**

GL put a hand on Trinity's arm and subvocalized, _**::Superman, we need a plan.::**_

_**::Who's that in my head?::**_

_**::It's GL and I'm not in your head. The Ring is letting us communicate through the Reserve Charge over your collarbone. Don't give in to emotion. We need to assess the situation, review our resources and capabilities and-::**_

"How can you be so calm and analytical?" Trinity elbowed GL in the ribs. Apparently she was hearing the whole thing on the same circuit through the Reserve Charges.

"It's all I have left." Green Lantern looked west over toward the Atlantic Ocean, beyond which lay the Americas and Los Angeles. "My girl broke up with me when I told her I had to go on this Mission. Besides, to save the world you've got be a cold calculating b $t rd."

_**::Fine.:: **_Superman lowered himself from 400 miles down to about fifty, far enough into the atmosphere that he could hear. _**::You assess the situation, you're the military man. I'm going to find my son. And Chloe's coming with me:: **_And with, that Superman vanished in a blur of speed.

"That went well." GL turned to his right and saw that Trinity had vanished along with Superman. _His son! He has a son. Named Jason. I taught Richard White's son, Jason, to throw a baseball last summer. Richard taught him to catch. Between bouts with asthma. Asthma that recently vanished after the lad hurled a piano across a room to save his mother. Could it be? Sure could. Superman and Lois Lane were rumored to be linked romantically before he left for Krypton. _Kyle shook it off. He clapped his hands together twice loudly. Whatever the truth about Superman's son it would keep until after Kyle pieced together what happened that day fifteen years ago when the music died.

_Guess that leaves me on recon duty._ Kyle looked west toward Gibraltar. There he, too, saw the Colossus that was Darkseid's likeness, in the form of a statue. A giant statue twenty times bigger than the biggest of buildings. He couldn't quite make out what surrounded it's feet. _Smaller figures, maybe._

Turning east, the fighter pilot placed himself on trajectory that would end near Jerusalem. _Have to see how it ended. Maybe if I can comprehend what went wrong, sort what almost worked from what didn't quite...Maybe then I can figure out what to do differently when we get back to our own time._

The Future. Earth. Italy. Superman and Trinity.

"Where is he; where's Jason?" Chloe asked.

Kal-El listened intently and then answered, "Rome. Or what's left of it."

Superman and Trinity approached from the southeast; he brought them in low, flying over Catanzaro and Salerno on the way up the west coast of Italy. Many of these formerly charming and picturesque little seaside communities had withered over the past few years. Shutters hung crookedly, cracked and broken panes filled windows and once gorgeous tiled roofs had fallen into disrepair, literally crumbled tiles lay at the base of several buildings. Vines and weeds and wild vegetation had taken over the outskirts of the cities. The farmland looked blighted, as though it still produced but not abundantly. Billboards flapped in tatters; except the ones with Darkseid's picture.

"That one looks like the face on the Colossus of Gibraltar." Superman said glumly.

The air smelled foul and the sunlight didn't seem to penetrate in full force all the way to the surface of the world.

"Do you think that's him?" Trinity asked as they passed one of the billboards. The Amazon nestled up closer to the Kryptonian's chest

The Metropolis Marvel tucked his cape around her. "Do you?"

Chloe looked away into the mist over the Tyrrhenian Sea. "I never saw his face when we were on his ship. Not clearly."

"And you think I did?" Clark reached up and pushed her blond hair out of her face, tucking it back into her helmet.

"Yes, Clark. Your powers of perception are far better than 20/20, and you've always had total recall."

"I can't quite recall his face either. I remember the red smoldering eyes, like coals from a furnace, but to answer your question, I'm certain it's him, yes."

They flew in silence from Salerno to Napoli. "I haven't seen any small children." Trinity broke the silence. All this way up the coast of Italy, I've see tweens and teenagers, but none that looked younger than twelve. Do you hear any children anywhere around here?"

The Son of Krypton slowed and looked thoughtful for a few moments..."No, I don't hear any children playing or sleeping anywhere around the Mediterranean."

"I've seen people shuffling along through the towns or working out in the fields, but no one has looked up to see us yet."

"They all look like they're sleep walking don't they?" Kal observed.

The Amazon nodded.

"This is a dying world. A world without hope."

The Future. Earth. Jerusalem. Green Lantern.

With his force field activated against the radiation still left after fifteen years, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner flew past the center of where Jerusalem had once stood. He could almost still see it, a thriving city of culture, spirituality, religion, commerce, government and learning. It was still there in his mind. He looked around trying to place landmarks from the time he'd stopped here with Superman on the way back to America from the Mission in Persia. But nearly everything was scorched, blasted and flattened. He spotted the foundations of two buildings and the Wailing Wall. Four shadows were scorched onto the surface of the wailing wall. Three of them wore cloaks and held up staffs in their right hands. The fourth wore a cape with a high collar and extended both arms.

It occurred to Kyle that based on its closeness to the Western Wall, one of the foundations had to belong to the Dome of the Rock: the Mosque constructed over the ancient Hebrew Temple Mount, also the site where the Muslims believe their prophet Mohammed ascended into the Heavens. The artist and warrior hovered up to take the bearings of the final surviving foundation and concluded it had to be the Cathedral of the Holy Sepulcher. _Ruins of three houses of worship were all that survived... perhaps the accumulated belief of generations of the faithful had preserved them against furious blast of the dozens of nuclear warheads unleashed here fifteen years ago..._

Kyle returned to contemplate the shadows scorched upon the Western Wall. He studied the three staff wielding cloaked figures. One of the cloaked figures appeared to have long hair and an open hand.

Rayner thought back through his conversations with Dresden, to the one when the Wizard had explained to Rayner and the other costumed heroes, the Working that Dresden and his friends would set into motion over the Dome of the Rock and the ancient Hebrew Temple Mount. Dresden had related his concerns about having enough power for the spell. Rayner and the Amazon Princess had hatched the idea of a Ring construct to harmlessly transfer the energy of nuclear weapons into the spell.

The entire conversation is recorded and available for playback.

_That's okay, Ring. I'll stay with my own recollections. _Rayner felt slightly unsettled at the notion that his Ring recorded his words and actions...

In that talk with Dresden and Diana, the painter/pilot had projected a white board with his Ring and worked back through some of the science he'd learned at the Air Force Academy. Within a few minutes, an idea for a workable solution in the form of a Ring construct took shape in his mind. He could employ every last Watt of light, and Joule of heat from the nukes harmlessly to power the spell.

Now that he remembered what the Wizards had intended to accomplish, Green Lantern looked around again at the devastation wrought by the nuclear weapons. The crater seemed quite shallow for the number of weapons they'd planned to use. Rayner wondered whether it had been a flaw in his construct design or in the ability of Retired Lantern Alan Scott to carry out Rayner's role in the plan.

**The flaw was not in your construct.**

_That's somewhat reassuring. Wait a minute. Are all my conversations recorded?_

**Yes.**

_It's like a cockpit flight recorder, the ones crash investigators try to recover to find out what went wrong in the final minutes of a doomed airplane flight. On long flights overseas, flight deck crews will swap out and the recorders continue recording...Ring, are the words and actions of prior Lantern Corps Officers who wielded you also recorded?_

**Yes.**

_Did any of them ever face a situation like this where they had to look at the scene of an event or a crime years later and piece together what happened._

**Most of them did that.**

_So what should I do?_

**No regulations in the Book of Oa prescribe actions for situations such as this.**

This was not the sort of answer Rayner wanted. He needed an idea._ No prescribed actions. The situation comes up often but there's nothing in the procedure manual for it. Must be too many ways to handle it to prescribe just one. The Guardians leave it to the Officers to determine what to do. Ring, what can I do?_

**You can do anything you set your mind to do.**

_Ask a broad question, get a broad answer. This is going nowhere. _Rayner spun in frustration. He didn't want to strike out physically and damage the only evidence he pilot instincts kicked in and the Lantern began to control his breathing and pulse so that he could think his way through this calmly. Better questions might yield more useful answers. _Ring, name the last two Corps Officers to wield this Ring before me._

**Hal Jordan before you, Abin Sur before him.**

_What did Abin Sure do when confronted with an event scene years after the fact?_

**Abin Sur would search for physical evidence left by radiation and it's interactions with surrounding materials.**

_What might radiation leave behind in a stone wall?_

**Speculation is not part of the Ring's programming. The Book of Oa requires that only sentient beings speculate.**

_When searching an event scene like this one what kind of evidence did Abin Sur find?_

**The shadows of organic beings burned into surfaces by hard radiation contain traces of the beings themselves. Chemicals in the air such as pheromones are also burned into the shadows.**

_So the shadows scorched onto the Western Wall are like a molecular record of the last events here?_

**Just so.**

Rayner floated back over to the Western Wall. What had happened here in those last moments? Everything they said, everything they felt, whatever worked but almost didn't, whatever misfired but almost worked...it was all seared into the surface of that wall by the nuclear blast. Everything was right there: sound vibrations of words, pheromones released by fear or love, their last acts had all been embedded into the rock of the Western Wall by the energy of the blast wave along with their shadows. And the accumulated belief of the faithful held it all there against time, entropy, the weather.

It was all right there writ in the rock like a chemical form of braille, if only he could read it...If only he had the most powerful weapon and most versatile tool in all the known cosmos...but wait he did. He had it right there on his own hand: The Ring.

_So this is like molecular archeology...Indian Jones and the last bacterium. _Rayner chuckled.

_Elaine turned toward Harry and called out to him._

The other two cloaked figures apparently had short hair, in addition to his staff one carried a sword, the other a gun. Wizard Harry Dresden must have wielded his staff and the Sword Amorracheus.

_Harry called up all of his Power and even threw his Soul Fire into the spell._

Joining Dresden and Elaine in this last stand would have been their friend and fellow Wizard, Ramirez, with the six shooter.

_Ramirez and Elaine combined their magic with Harry's to..._ To do what?

The Future. Earth. Rome. Superman and Trinity.

As Superman and Trinity soared into Rome, they saw wanted posters, hung like banners around a square. They floated down to see if they knew any of the faces. "There's Grayson," the Amazon pointed to a serious faced man with a scar and dark hair. Blue shoulders in an otherwise black uniform were all she could make out as the picture cut off below the collarbone.

"I don't recognize these" the Man of Steel indicated two young men dressed in ragged military uniforms, the names Connor and Reese stood out bold beneath their pictures.

"Or that one in the red top with the white cape and the yellow lightening bolt..." the Amazing Amazon added.

Two more posters featured women one dressed in a red,white and yellow uniform that matched the hero with the lightening bolt on his chest. Hers didn't seem to be a wanted poster, though. Hers seemed to praise her for returning or turning herself in to Darkseid. She also noted Green Arrow, Black Canary, Raven and Zatanna among the wanted banners. The final wanted poster showed a simple brunette with a serene smile and intense eyes. Margaret Angelica was all Trinity could make out under her face.

"You know these are the first clear eyed people we've seen and they're on wanted posters...hmmm." Superman thought out loud.

"Uh oh." Trinity pointed toward other banners on the far side of the square.

"Yeah, those have been captured." They both recognized the Speedsters: Max Mercury, Jay Garrick, Wally West, Jesse Quick and Bart Allen. The Martian Manhunter was unmistakeable, as were the Atom, Diana and Hippolyta. The final category on the far side held just three: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, well it was the face of Chloe Sullivan in Amazon battle regalia, but it said Wonder Woman.

"We've seen enough," the Amazon said as she and the Kryptonian faced each other.

"Let's go find my son." Superman locked arms with Trinity and the floated up out of the square.

Someone finally saw them from a second floor balcony. _"Sentenza Campionato!" _an old washer woman blurted out as she hung clothes from line across the crumbling balcony. The few people shuffling through the street below turned and looked up.

Many ran screaming. All the Amazon could make out over the hue and cry was "Dios Mio!" and "E Il Heir et Lasciel des Denarii!"

"What are they calling us?"

"The old lady said we were Judgment League. The younger man in the square who almost fell into the fountain, said we were the Heir and Lasciel of the Danarians."

They flew on in silence.

The Son of Krypton set them down on a deserted rooftop and pointed to the adjacent, slightly lower roof where they saw Jason on a rooftop terrace with a woman. Jason wore a black uniform without a cape, form fitting, it showed that his son had a couple of inches in height and more muscular bulk than Superman did. The black uniform had twin lightening blots within a five sided diamond. It looked like a combination of the SS emblem worn by the Nazi shock troops of the Second World War and the family crest from the House of El back on Krypton, the symbol Kal wore on his own chest.

The Future. Earth. Jerusalem. Green Lantern

Kyle and his Ring worked out where the blast had originated, computed where the blast wave would have moved and how the particles of Alan Scott, Harry Dresden, Ramirez and Elaine would have been carried by the blast wave and smashed into the wall like a surfer riding a wave into the beach.

The four shadows stood facing a spot directly over the center of the Mount. He detected the residual of the spell Dresden created, sustained and strengthened by the Ramirez and Elaine. The spell opened Crack in the Universe, now mostly healed over. Perhaps held together by the same Faith Magic that preserved the foundation of the Dome and the Western Wall.

Darkseid had stood there next to the Crack but hadn't fallen through it.

Dresden had detonated the nukes and this had been the moment when the fourth shadow had been so important, the one with the cape and high collar rather than a cloak.

_The fourth shadow, naturally must haver been Alan Scott, the retired Green Lantern, wearing the old union suit from his days among the Mystery Men of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations._ And while Kyle could see clearly in his mind's eye the exact construction of Ring energy that would route 99.999 percent of the power from the detonating nuclear warheads straight into the supernatural working, Alan must have faltered.

The results of that blast stood all round him now on the irradiated, rubble strewn plains: the shallow glass crater, the flattened hills, the vaporized Sea of Galilee, the destroyed buildings and two million lives extinguished in an instant, mostly Jews but with a sizable number of Arabs, Christians and others, too. The results of the blast had left Darkseid in the world, and along with him, his dreadful band of evil minor deities and Swarm Troopers.

The Future. Earth. Rome. The Heir of Darkseid.

Jason slow danced next to a pool with a tall, beautiful, powerful, woman in a small pale dress, or maybe it was a swim-suit. Her hair had traces of gray and her eyes had the faintest of crows feet. She might have been enjoying herself as well.

The young man stopped suddenly and stepped back gripping his dance partner by the shoulders. "Lyta, be a dear and refill our wine goblets."

"Of course, my Lord." the once proud warrior shuffled away slump-shouldered. She too appeared to be sleep walking.

Trinity stiffened in Superman's arms when she saw the face of the woman Jason called Lyta. "That's my Queen!" she whispered.

As the Queen walked across the terrace to a wine rack, another tall, slim, powerful woman who might have been gorgeous if she'd any poise, rose from the pool and threw her hair back. She sauntered sleepily over to Jason and leaned her head against his chest. He kissed her. She kissed back weakly.

"And that's Prime Minister Ariadne, the Chancellor of the Amazon Senate!" Chloe whispered again.

This time Jason looked across to the adjacent rooftop where the Kryptonian and the Amazon stood behind a rampart. "Look what the cat dragged in, Ladies. It's Kal-El of Krypton returned to Earth at long last."

Trinity and Superman extended their arms toward each other and gripped each other by the shoulders. They floated together across to Jason's rooftop terrace. The two former warrior chieftains of the Amazons glanced uncaringly in the direction of the visitors as they settled down on the terrace. Trinity rushed over to her Queen. "My Liege! Whatever are two glorious women such as you and your Prime Minister doing in this...place?"

"Oh..."the Queen smiled vacantly. "He wants us. He's our champion."

As Jason's face hardened toward his father and he stiffened, Ariadne slipped away toward Trinity and the Queen. "Cassiopeia? Is that you?"

Jason marched over to Superman and placed a hand on his shoulder. The younger man looked appraisingly into the face of his elder. "You're not so big any longer." Then he turned toward the women. "That's the only way I take after you Kal, your taste in women. I just can't get enough of Amazons, but those two are my favorites. My Lord gave them to me, but he kept Diana for himself."

"What do you mean your Lord?" Superman asked his son.

"Why Darkseid. Of course." Jason whispered. Not wanting to draw the attention of one of the Beings who seemed omniscient.

"Is that why your face wasn't on a banner with Nightwing, Connor, Reese, Black Canary, Angelica and the others?" Chloe asked, the journalist beginning to emerge from within the Amazon.

"Oh, and don't forget the one true thorn in my side, Captain Marvel. The only Super we haven't captured or turned. He's the Prince of the Resistance. The Abbot, the Scholar, the Preacher, the Imam and the Priestess...all annoy my Lord, but not so much as the Captain of the Lightning and the Thunder annoys me."

"Have you joined the Conquerors?" Kal asked his son, comprehension dawning in his face.

"After you abandoned me and mom and the whole world to run of with your little hooker over there-" the venom dripped from Jason's voice as he spoke, but Trinity's voice and the back of Superman's hand cut him off.

"I heard that!" she screamed and drew her sword. Seeing that Kal had struck, she put the weapon back in its sheath and returned to tend her Lieges.

"Wow. I never thought you'd have that in you." Jason rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "As I was saying, Richard and Perry died in the early fighting. Bruce disappeared. Grayson went on lam with the other mortal heroes. My Lord took me in. He raised me. Not you.

"As I grew I joined him in hunting down the Supers. Now I run the Judgment League for Him. Lasciel, Glimmer, Maloria, Prometheus, White Martian, Ocean Master and I will be rounding up all the Resistance's Leaders soon. And then we'll finally put an end to their hope. Then finally all will kneel before my Lord."

Superman but a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Surely you can't mean that. Surely our line has bred true in you, Vann-El."

"Because of the naming ceremony...?" a tear came to Jason's eye. The Krypton's Last Son let the Son of Krypton begin to pull him into an embrace. The with a sudden ferocity Jason slammed his father mightily forehead to forehead. Superman staggered perhaps from the blow, perhaps from surprise. His son followed that up with a knee to the gut. "Never call me by any name! I am the Heir of Darkseid! Now, away with you! I will hunt you down in due time." Jason stepped into the pool and summoned his ladies to him, completely ignoring Superman and Trinity.


	9. Know your Enemy

Chapter 9

The Future. Earth. Italy. Kal-El and Trinity

"My son..." Kal-El, the Son of Krypton, whispered in a mournful tone from a rooftop not far from Aeropuerto da Vinci near Rome. He looked out across the Mediterranean Sea into a moonless night.

"My Queen!" Chloe Cassiopeia Sullivan, the youngest Amazon, stood a few feet away from Kal and shrieked at the heavens. Hardly any stars appeared to shine. The night was as dark as the night of the shipwreck, when Chloe had washed ashore on the Island of the Amazons. While Clark had been off-world on his five-year trip to Krypton and back, Chloe had become Cassiopeia of the Amazons. After Clark had returned to earth and she had rejoined the outside world, a reporter tagged her with callsign Trinity.

Kal sat on the ledge of the roof and hunched in on himself as though he felt cold. Perhaps he did, but it was a more a coldness of spirit than a physical feeling, since his capeless, black, space-travel uniform still functioned, maintaining a constant internal temperature. The space travel uniform resembled his usual uniform, but without the cape and the bright colors. In fact, it looked as dark as the sea, as dark his mood.

The sun had set while he and Chloe had looked for Jason. Finding him, Kal and Jason had argued in twilight. Now, Kal mulled it all over in the full darkness. A chilling breeze blew off the sea with a foul sent of chemicals mixed with natural salt spray. "What happened to my son...?"

The golden wings and bird-like helmet of Cassiopeia's armor bore battle scars of projectiles and energy weapons. Trinity's armor had been scarred in the battle that she, Superman and Green Lantern had fought against Darkseid's armada in the Epsilon Eridani system 10.7 light-years across space and fifteen years in the past. No one had figured out quite how they'd skipped over the fifteen years or why they had seemed to jump forward and back in time. They just felt relieved that they weren't dead after they'd been ejected from Darkseid's Command Cruiser while it was transiting the Epsilon Jump Gate. They felt relief to be back in the normal flow of time.

"What has become of my Queen? Of my Sisters?" Frustrated, Trinity jammed the butt of her javelin into a gargoyle on the edge of the roof and chipped a wing. "...of everyone?"

Kal sat on the roof's edge and gazed out over dark waters. "My son grew up without me." Kal thought aloud. "He was raised by a world conquering tyrant with god-like powers, raised by one who ground this whole planet and every civilization upon it under his bootheel..."_ raised by someone who is in many ways my exact opposite, someone who possesses great powers but employs those powers to conquer and destroy and crush spirits, rather than to liberate, create and inspire._

Cassiopeia leaned against her javelin and sobbed. "Hippolyta! Ariadne! Diana!" She took a breath. "You were the best, the bravest, the kindest, the most regal women I have ever known..." The wing of the gargoyle cracked and a piece of it fell and disappeared silently into the waters below.

Kal stood. _How can I make this better? _He asked himself. _My son may be lost to me in this time, in this place – and I will have to grieve his loss – but; there are people here, now, who only lack the light to show the way, _He turned toward his friend, "We must make this right, we must set this world, in this time to rights."

Cassiopeia gazed into Kal's eyes as well, "We have to stop Darkseid and save the whole world." Kal and Cassiopeia clasped hands. She continued, "Can't you fly us back in time, like you did yourselve, once before? Can't you do what you did when you saved Lois from that earthquake and stopped Luthor form using two nuclear missiles to knock everything west of the San Andreas Fault into the Pacific Ocean?"

Kal considered for a moment, for several moments, "...If I had my full powers, perhaps, but with the weak sunlight in this time... I'm still not fully recharged from the space battles with Darkseid and captivity aboard his starship. And truthfully, I'm not sure the sunlight that reaches the surface of this earth is even capable of restoring me back to full power."

A huge bolt of lightning struck the face of the building atop which Kal and Cassiopeia stood. They both looked up and saw a young man with ragged black hair hovering in the air before them. A tattered white half-cape with frayed golden fringes fluttered in the breeze behind him. A huge stylized golden lightening bolt adorned his red jacket and a white sash tied about his waist. "Am I interrupting something?" asked the Captain of the Lightening.

Then he realized who stood before him. "You! Both of you! Where have you been!?" He glared at each of them in turn. Numerous emotions played out across his features: suprize, anger, adoration, relief, joy. Relief finally won out. "I'm called Captain Marvel and I'm so glad to see you again, Superman. And you as well, Trinity. We all saw you both fly off into space with Green Lantern years ago, when I was just a boy. Trinity, you were wearing the same uniform you have on now, but I can see that your armor has been scarred in battle since then. Superman you've changed your uniform though...No more cape. No more red, blue and yellow..." The man in red looked thoughtful for a moment. _Maybe he got that one from Nightwing's tailor. _"Say, Superman, if you managed to return yourself and Trinity to Earth, did you bring Green Lantern back with you, too?"

"Actually, it was Trinity here who brought me back to consciousness..." Kal's thoughts drifted back to that moment. It was a pretty good moment, and not just because he'd waked up, also because of the way Chloe had wakened him, with a kiss. It was kind of a reverse Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty scenario.

"Yes, I did have the insight on what to do to bring Kal out of his catatonic state." Trinity squeezed Superman's hand gently. "And it was Green Lantern, with his power ring, who brought the three of us back to Earth across a vast distance of interstellar space."

The future. Earth. Jerusalem Crater. Green Lantern 2814

_So that's it then._ Green Lantern Kyle Rayner thought solemnly. He looked down at his uniform and noted that it no longer resembled the pressure suit he wore in the cockpit of his US Air Force Reserve F-15E. It now looked more like his formal dress uniform rendered in light and dark greens with black trim, rather than Air Force Blue. His Ring manifested the uniform to match his mood and thoughts._ Fifteen years ago, in this spot, three Wizards combined their power into a spell that forced open a crack in the fabric of the universe. But... they didn't have sufficient power make the crack wide enough for whoever they were fighting – I'll assume it was Darkseid – to pass through it. And they lacked sufficient power to force the the dark godling through it. For that extra boost, they needed the power of the nuclear weapons. And retired Green Lantern Alan Scott wasn't able to employ the Ring energy construct I showed him to successfully shunt all the power of the nukes into the spell. Hence this distruction. I wonder if the crack is still there..._

The Space Cop floated into the air and flew west over the crater of rock and fused glass that had once been Israel. Over the Mediterranean Sea, he accelerated past the sound barrier and the vast waters absorbed the energy of the sonic boom, leaving barely a peep to any surveillance satellites that might be watching for the likes of him._ I wonder if it could have worked, if they could actually have forced Darkseid outside of reality? Apparently, Wizard Dresden thought it might work. Why else would he have tried it?_

The Future. Earth. Italy. Kal-El

A glowing green spec appeared in the sky over spine of the Apennines Mountain range in central Italy. Kal immediately identified it as Green Lantern approaching by the hum of his forcefield. Trinity and Captain Marvel appeared not to notice.

"I have to get to my Fortress." Kal spoke with quite confidence. "Something there, in my mother Lara's archives or in my father Jor-El's researches of science and studies of the forty-eight known Galactic Civilizations may tell us how to defeat the conquerors..." Kal's face looked hopeful and resolute. Cassiopeia's tears began to dry on her cheeks.

The green spec grew larger as it moved closer. Still, the other heroes were too absorbed in their own thoughts to notice.

Captain Marvel's face turned downcast at the mention of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. "We had the same idea a few years back, Nightwing, Raven and I. The Bat had showed Nightwing how to find your Fortress before he disappeared. When we got there it was ... melted, fused, charred; crystal shafts that should have been spires... They just sagged in the middle. It looked like a nuclear weapon went off inside it. Nightwing said the radiation around the area confirmed it. We didn't go closer because we had no radiation suits."

Kal's face took on the thousand yard stare of those who feel overwrought by events. _My father's Fortress of Knowledge, that became my Fortress of Solitude, is certainly lost to me and I will grieve that loss as well._

Rayner's voice buzzed in the Lantern Corps Reserve Charges over Trinity and Kal's collarbones, "This is Green Lantern. I'm on approach to your position from your southwest. Is the new guy friend or foe?"

Kal turned toward the southwest and indicated to Green Lantern that he could join them. "He's a friend."

"What's up?" asked Captain Marvel.

Kal-El's mood seemed further grieved by Captain Marvel's report on the Fortress. This loss added to his feelings of grief over his son and his powers. So Trinity answered, "You asked about Green Lantern, earlier. He's flying back to join us and report on what he found."

Kal steeled himself in the presence of GL, as the newer hero floated down to join them on the roof, and made introductions. They all brought each other up to date on Jason, the Amazons and the Wizards' last stand against the Darkseid and his hoards. The Lantern turned to Captain Marvel, "We need to know our enemy in order to devise a way to defeat him. What can you tell us about this Darkseid, about the source of his power?"

"First, we don't say his name." Cap turned toward Rayner. "He is supernatural. Saying his name could summon him or at least his awareness. He seems to feed on the despair, hopelessness, and crushed spirits of the survivors here on Earth. He's got some kind of techno-shamanistic link to everyone in the cities and towns. There are a few resistance groups, but mostly they just try to live by themselves, carve out a life hidden in the jungels of India, Africa, and South America. Freddy and I swap out visiting them all, carrying messages among them. One of us always guards the Rock of Eternity and on it the Spear of Destiny. The other is down here helping as he can. The resistance just scavenges a meager existance out of the jungles and abandoned military camps. It was easier before my sister joined the conquerors."

"So we weaken the Conqueror, disrupting his nourishment supply by inspiring hope among the people of earth" said Kal. "That I can do. Even without my full range of powers."

"What?" Green Lantern and Captain Marvel asked in stereo.

Trinity replied, "Kal hasn't always been costumed adventurer. He's been a writer and farmer as well, a man of the soil and a man of the pen."

"That's interesting but not compelling." Replied the fighter pilot.

"Yeah, this is the compelling question: if Superman has lost his powers what chance do have against these conquerors?" Captain Marvel asserted. "Maybe you haven't seen the state of the world. I have flown to every corner of the globe. The Conqueror with his Swarm Troopers and Parademons turned northern Europe into a giant firepit. They wiped out our militaries: all six Chinese aircraft carriers lie on the bottom of the Pacific, thousands of blasted-apart Russian tanks litter the roads into south and central Asia as well as the passes of the Ural Mountains and they even turned the American satellite system against us. Millions died of malnutrition and exposure in the months after they Conquered us. The minds of most survivors are enthralled to the Conqueror, except for a handful in the resistance. We needed you Superman. We needed your powers."

Trinity hefted her spear. "We fight with the forces we have; not those we wish we had. Did we learn nothing from the Bat in Gotham? His greatest power was as a symbol that anyone can stand up to injustice and everyone should."

Many emotions played out in Kal's eyes as his face betrayed little. He thought back to what his dad, Jonathon Kent, had told him about his powers, _"You were sent here for a reason son, and it wasn't just about dusting crops or scoring touchdowns."_ He thought about what his father Jor-El had said in the recordings in the Fortress, _"They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. In time, they will race behind you. In time, they will join you in the sun."_

GL turned to Captain Marvel, "What else do we know about the Conqueror and his forces? Have they, in fact, been to earth before?"

Captain Marvel seemed to be organizing his thoughts. Even though his face had the weathered appearance of a man in his late thirties or early forties, his expression more resembled a college freshman being asked to recall something from the prior semester. "The tribal peoples from sub-Saharan Africa and the mountains and rainforests of South American say they have legends. The Wizard Shazam who gave me and Mary and Freddy our powers says he remembers it from the dawn of human history. It matches up with some of the Hebrew and Catholic mysticism regarding that early period. Kalduram, Aquaman now, said the early history of Atlantis indicates that it sank around that time..."

"And..?" The Air Force officer in Green Lantern was getting the better of his patience.

"Well, piecing it all togther, which I haven't actually sat down and done before..." Marvel thought for another moment, "Here are some common elements of these early legends: after the War in the Heavens where Lucifer was cast down, there was a War in Earth where a dark god was driven off the earth. Atlantis was sunk durning that war. The Amazons' Island was cast adrift in time. It took the mightiest civilizations of the day...the Sumerians, the Phonecians, the Egyptians, the Amazons, the Atlantians, working together with the Old Gods and the Arc Angels to force this dark godling from the realm of earth. The Angels didn't have the stomach to finish the job after having just fought a war of their own..." He trailed off in thought.

Cassiopeia spoke up, "In my studies of Amazon and Mediterranean antiquities, I found some writings on clay tablets and markings on pottery that would support what you're describing." She put an hand on his shoulder.

"They certainly couldn't have put him on a space ship and launched him away into the heavens" Green Lantern looked quite serious. "What did they do to drive him out?"

"Look, I haven't exactly researched any of this for a term paper, you know? I've just heard things. I haven't heard how it happened exactly." The Captain of the Lightning and the Thunder looked off into the middle distance as he recalled, "But...I think the armies and the mages confined the dark god in a summoning circle and then reversed it to cast him beyond the Outer Gates..." He looked across at Kal, a hopeful look in his eyes "I guess that would be across space, to another planet in another star system, right?"

Trinity elbowed Kal gently. She gave him a look that said, _Pull youself together; we have a world to save. _Kal perked up and replied, "Could be." Then he seemed to withdraw, listening yet more intent on sorting his own thoughts, his own grief over his son. _There are people here, now who can benefit from the skills and knowledge I that I have. There are people who have resisted the Conquerors; Captain Marvel says they scratch out an existence for themselves scavenging from the jungles and from lost cities, lost military camps. I can teach them to farm, to build; I can inspire them. _

"Where are we going to find supernatural firepower like that today?" Trinity asked.

"Tough to say," replied Marvel. "The White Council of Wizards was all but wiped out in the Conquest. I don't know if anyone has contact with Summer or Winter Courts of the Fae anymore. The Vampire Nations all allied themselves with the Conquerors. The Church seemed to fall apart. The synagogues went underground again. And your people, Trinity, your Sisters..." He trailed off clearly saddend by what he knew had become of the once-proud warriors of virtue. "Maybe Atlantis? I still see Kaldur and Garth from time to time. We have Raven and Zatanna among the resistance, but they mostly keep their groups shielded from the Conqueror's senses. There's me and Freddy, but we've got our hands full just protecting the Spear on the Rock of Eternity. There are some adepts among the Resistance but I wouldn't ask them to step up and take on the Conqueror, without support, without a plan..." He trailed off, looking searchingly at Kal.

Rayner spoke up, "I may be the one with the least heroing experience, but I have years of experience in planning and executing operations. Now that we have some idea of the enemy we're facing, we need to see if adding ourselves into the mix of the resistance will create an advantage for us."

Trinity turned to Captain Marvel, "Can you get me to the Library of Sicily? I should be able to contact Atlantis from there. I'll work with Kalduram to see what we can come up with."

"Maybe I can contact the Green Lantern Corps and get some reinforcement from the Guardians?" Rayner offered. "Or maybe there's something from that last Working Harry Dresden put together fifteen years ago. I'll find Raven and we'll see what we can figure out. "

Kal stood up firmly and turned to Kyle, "Take me to Nightwing and the resistance." He looked like Superman again. "I can teach them to farm. I can teach them to build houses and barns. Everyone has the abilities and talents to carry out his or her purpose. It seems that mine are currently more suited to helping the resistance do more than merely scavenge and gather a life for them selves out the jungles and wrecked cities. Maybe Zatanna and I can figure out a way to hack the techno-shamanistic hold the Conqueror has over the people of the world. I will teach them to hope again. Maybe we can weaken the Conqueror." Kal concluded. "If despair is his yellow sunlight, then hope must be his green Kryptonite."

Kal and Trinity lingered holding hands and finally decided on an embrace and a kiss for their goodbyes. Captain Marvel made a kind of bowing salute with his fist in his chest. The Space Cop and the Amazon clapped each other on the shoulder and he shook hands with Superman.

As the heroes flew off, Darkseid's visage appeared in the night sky. His lips moved, but only those in his thrall could hear his words. Both Kal and Trinity could lipread in the language he spoke. "Come to me all of you workers and farmers. Come to me in my city. Come to me in Babylon which is now fully rebuilt. Come to me and receive my mark upon your foreheads. Receive my mark upon your minds and give yourselves fully to me. Without me you are nothing. You have no goals, or thoughts of your own. Recieve my mark. Receive my words. Only then will your miserable wretched lives have meaning."


End file.
